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DESIGNS ON PREHISTORIC 
HOPI POTTERY 




WASHINGTON 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
1919 



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CONTENTS 

Page 

Introduction 215 

Chronology of Hopi pottery symbols 215 

The ruin, Sikyatki. . 218 

Sikyatki epoch 219 

Human figures 220 

Quadruped figures 223 

Reptilian figures 225 

Winged figures 227 

Dorsal views of birds 228 

Lateral views of birds 233 

Feather designs 236 

Feathers suspended from strings 241 

Sky-band 242 

Vertical attachment to sky -band 243 

Birds attached longitudinally to sky-band 246 

Decorations on exteriors of food bowls 248 

Curved figure with attached feathers 251 

Spider and insects 252 

Butterfly and moth 252 

Geometrical designs 255 

Rain clouds 256 

Stars 257 

Sun emblems 258 

Rectangular figures representing shrines 262 

Symbols introduced from San Juan River settlements 264 

Symbols introduced by the Snake people 265 

Tanoan epoch 266 

Symbols introduced from the Little Colorado 267 

Symbols introduced by the Badger and Kachina clans 273 

Symbols introduced from Awatobi 275 

Shalako mana 275 

Symbols of Hano clans 279 

Conclusion -. 281 

Authorities cited 284 

74936°— 19— 33 eth 14 209 



j 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PLATES 

Page 

76. Various forme of conventionalized feathers 238 

77. Conventionalized tail feathers 240 

78. Conventionalized feathers attached to strings (nakwakwoci) 240 

79. Sky-bands 242 

80. Geometrical figures on outside of bowls 250 

81. Geometrical figures on outside of bowls -. 250 

82. Geometrical figures on outside of bowls 250 

83. Geometrical figures on outside of bowls 250 

84. Geometrical figures on outside of bowls 250 

85. Conventionalized bird designs 250 

86. Conventionalized bird designs 250 

87. Bird, sun, and spider and sun symbols , 258 

88. Conventionalized bird figures 258 

89. Shalako mana, Corn Maid (from tablet dance) 276 

90. Top of butterfly vase 276- 

TEXT FIGUKES 

12. Human head with hair in characteristic whorls 221 

13. Woman with serpent-like animal 221 

14. Kneeling woman, showing hair in characteristic whorls r 222 

15. Three human figures 223 

16. a, Deer; b, rabbit 224 

17. Quadruped 224 

18. Antelope or mountain sheep 224 

19. Mountain lion 225 

20. Problematical reptile 225 

21. Reptile .... 225 

22. Reptile .. .. 225 

23. Reptile . 226 

24. Reptile 227 

25. Turtle . 227 

26. Clouds and tadpoles 228 

27. Tadpoles 228 

28. Dorsal view of a bird 229 

29. Bird figure, two halves restored to natural position 229 

30. Dorsal view of bird 230 

31. Bird figure 230 

32. Bird figure 231 

33. Bird figure 231 

34. Bird figure 231 

35. Bird figure (Thunderbird) 231 

36. Bird figure 232 

37. Highly conventionalized figure of bird from dorsal side 232 

38. Conventional figure of a bird 233 

211 



212 ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

39. Conventional figure of a bird 233 

40. Conventional figure of a bird 233 

41. Conventional figure of a bird 233 

42. Conventional figure of a bird 234 

43. Triangular form of bird 234 

44. Triangular form of bird 234 

45. Simple form of bird with terraced body 234 

46. Lateral view of triangular bird with two tail feathers 234 

47. Lateral view of bird with three tail feathers 234 

48. Problematical bird figure 234 

49. Bird with two tail feathers , 234 

50. Highly conventionalized bird figure 234 

51. Lateral view of bird 235 

52. Profile of bird 235 

53. Lateral view of bird with outspread wing 235 

54. Lateral view of bird with twisted tail and wing feathers 235 

55. Lateral view of conventionalized bird 236 

56. Lateral view of conventionalized bird 236 

57. Feather symbol with black notch ■. 237 

58. Feather symbol with black notch 237 

59. Feathers 241 

60. Curved feathers 241 

61. Conventional feathers 241 

62. Parallel lines representing feathers 241 

63. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky -band, top view 244 

64. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view 244 

65. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view 244 

66. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view 244 

67. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view 245 

68. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view 245 

69. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view 245 

70. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view 246 

71. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view 246 

72. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view 247 

73. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view ; 247 

74. Lateral view of bird hanging from sky-band 247 

75. Lateral view of bird hanging from sky-band 248 

76. Lateral view of bird with extended wing 248 

77. Lateral view of bird hanging from sky-band 249 

78. Lateral view of bird hanging from sky-band 249 

79. Butterfly and flower 252 

80. Butterfly with extended proboscis 253 

81. Highly conventionalized butterfly 253 

82. Moth 254 

83. Moth - 254 

84. Moth of geometrical form 255 

85. Geometrical form of moth 255 

86. Highly conventionalized butterfly 255 

87. Geometrical form of moth 255 

88. Circle with triangles 255 

89. Rain cloud 257 

90. Rain cloud 257 

91. Ring with appended feathers 258 



ILLUSTRATIONS 213 

Page 

92. Two circles with figure 259 

93. Sun with feathers 259 

94. Sun symbol 259 

95. Ring with appended feathers 260 

96. Ring figure with legs and appended feathers 260 

97. Sun emblem with appended feathers 260 

98. Sun symbol ■ 261 

99. Sun symbol 261 

100. Horned snake with conventionalized shrine 263 

101. Shrine 263 

102. Shrine 264 

103. Conventionalized winged bird with shrine 264 

104. Lateral view of bird with double eyes 269 

105. Lateral view of bird with double eyes 270 

106. Bird with double eyes 271 

107. Two birds with rain clouds 272 

108. Head of Shalako mana, or Corn maid 276 

109. Head of Kokle, or Earth woman 280 

110. Head of Hahaiwugti, or Earth woman 280 

111. Ladle with clown carved on handle and Earth woman on bowl 281 

112. Puukon hoya, little War god 281 



DESIGNS ON PREHISTORIC HOPI POTTERY 



By Jesse Walter Fewkes 



INTRODUCTION 

In the following pages the author has endeavored to draw atten- 
tion to some of the most important symbols on Hopi pottery, espe- 
cially those of prehistoric times. 

Consideration of this subject has led to a discussion of the char- 
acter of pottery designs at different epochs and the interpretation, 
by study of survivals, of ancient designs in modern times. This 
chronological treatment has necessitated an examination of ceramic 
material from ruins of different ages and an ethnological study of 
ancient symbols still surviving in ceremonials now practiced. It has 
also led to sociological researches on the composition of the tribe, the 
sequence in the arrival of clans at Walpi, and their culture in distant 
homes from which they migrated. It will thus appear that the sub- 
ject is a very complicated one, and that the data upon which conclu- 
sions are based are sociological as well as archeological. There are 
many ruins from which material might have been obtained, but only 
a few have been adequately investigated. The small number of ruins 
in the Hopi country which have thus far been excavated necessarily 
makes our knowledge not only provisional but also imperfect. It is 
hoped, however, that this article may serve to stimulate others to 
renewed field work and so add desired data to the little we have 
bearing on the subject. 

Chronology of Hopi Pottery Symbols 

At least three well-marked epochs can be distinguished in the his- 
tory of Hopi ceramic symbolism. Each of these is intimately asso- 
ciated with certain clans that have from time to time joined the Hopi 
and whose descendants compose the present population. Although 
these epochs follow each other in direct sequence, each was not 
evolved from its predecessor or modified by it, except to a very 
limited extent. Each epoch has left to the succeeding one a heri- 
tage of symbols, survivals which are somewhat difficult to differen- 
tiate from exotic symbols introduced by incoming clans. So that 

215 



216 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



while each epoch grades almost imperceptibly into the one directly 
following it, an abrupt change is sometimes evident in the passage. 

In order to appreciate the relations between ceramic decoration 
and history let me sketch in brief outline what I regard as the his- 
torical development of the Hopi living near or on the East Mesa. 
We know little of the group of people who first settled here except 
that they belonged to the Bear clan, which is traditionally referred 
to the eastern pueblo region. At about the time they entered 
Hopiland there was a settlement called Sikyatki composed of Jemez 
colonists, situated about 3 miles from the southern point of East 
Mesa, and other towns or pueblos on Awatobi Mesa and in Antelope 
Valley, 10 miles away. 

The first great additions to this original population were Snake 
clans, who came from the San Juan, followed by Flute clans from 
the same direction but originally of southern origin. Having be- 
come well established at. the point of the East Mesa, the combined 
settlement overthrew Sikyatki and appropriated its clans. 

Then came the strenuous days of Spanish invasion and the de- 
struction of Awatobi in 1700. The Little Colorado clans had already 
begun to seek refuge in the Hopi mountains and their number was 
greatly augmented by those from Zuni, a Rio Grande settlement 
called Tewadi, and elsewhere, each addition bringing new forms of 
culture and settling new pueblos on or near the East Mesa, as has 
been shown in previous publications. Traditions point out their 
former settlements and it remains for the archeologist to excavate 
those settlements, now in ruins, and verify these traditions. This 
can be done by a study of artifacts found in them. 

As a rule archeologists have relied on technique, form, and especi- 
ally color, in the classification of Pueblo pottery, leading, on the 
technical side, to the groups known as (a) rough, coiled ware, and 
(b) smooth, polished ware; and on that of form, to bowls, vases, jars, 
dippers, etc. When color is used as the basis of classification the 
divisions black and white, red, yellow, orange, and polychrome are 
readily differentiated. Classifications based on these data are useful, 
as they indicate cultural as well as geographical differences in 
Pueblo ceramics; but these divisions can be used only with limita- 
tions in a study of stages of culture growth. The fact that they are 
not emphasized in the present article is not because their importance 
is overlooked, but rather for the purpose of supplementing them with 
a classification that is independent of and in some particulars more 
reliable for indicating chronology and culture distinctions. 

The life-forms on ancient Sikyatki and other Hopi pottery are 
painted on what is known as yellow ware, which is regarded by some 
authors as characteristic of the Hopi area ; but pottery of the same 
color, yet with radically different symbolic life-forms, occurs also 



.FEWKES] 



INTRODUCTION 



217 



in other areas. It thus appears that while a classification of Pueblo 
pottery by color is convenient, differences of color are not so much 
indications of diversity in culture as of geologic environment. De- 
signs on pottery are more comprehensive and more definite in culture 
studies than color, and are so regarded in these pages. 

As there exists a general similarity in the form of prehistoric 
pottery throughout the Southwest, shape alone is also inadequate for 
a determination of Pueblo culture centers. The great multiplicity 
and localization of symbols on Pueblo pottery furnishes adequate 
material for classification by means of the designs depicted on vases, 
bowls, and other pottery objects. Sikyatki pottery is especially suited 
to a classification on such a basis, for it is recognized as the most 
beautiful and the most elaborately decorated prehistoric pottery 
found in the Southwest. Life-forms are abundant and their symbol- 
ism is sufficiently characteristic to be regarded as typical of a well- 
defined ceramic area. There can, of course, be no question regarding 
the ancient character of the designs on Sikyatki pottery, nor were 
they introduced or modified by white men, but are purely aboriginal 
and prehistoric. 

Pottery from the Sikyatki ruin is chosen as a type of the most 
highly developed or golden epoch in Hopi ceramics. Several other 
ruins were inhabited when Sikyatki was in its prime and pottery 
from these belongs to the same epoch, and would probably be equally 
good to illustrate its character. Fortunately, specimens are available 
from many of these, as Awatobi, and the ruins in Antelope Valley, 
old Shumopavi, and other Middle Mesa ruins. The date of the 
origin of this epoch, or the highest development of Hopi ceramics, is 
not known, but there is evidence that it lasted until the fall of 
Awatobi, in 1700. The destruction of Sikyatki occurred before 1540, 
but Sikyatki has given the name to the epoch and is taken as the type, 
not only because of the abundance of ceramic material available from 
that ruin, but also because there can be no doubt of the prehistoric 
nature of material from it. 

There is abundant evidence that the culture of Sikyatki was never 
influenced by white man. After the overthrow of Awatobi there de- 
veloped on the East Mesa of the Hopi country a third ceramic epoch 
which was largely influenced by the influx of Tanoan (Tewa) clans. 
They came either directly from the Rio Grande or by way of Zuni 
and other pueblos. Among other arrivals about 1710 were those 
clans which settled Hano, a Tewa pueblo on the East Mesa. The 
Hano and other symbols introduced in this epoch are best known in 
the present generation by the earlier productions of Nampeo, an 
expert modern potter. 

The pottery of this epoch differs from that of the second in form, 
color, and technique, but mainly in its symbolism, which is radically 



218 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTEEY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



different from that of the epochs that preceded it. The symbolism 
of this phase is easily determined from large collections now in 
museums. This epoch was succeeded in 1895 by a fourth, in which 
there was a renaissance of old Sikyatki patterns, under the lead of 
Nampeo. In that year Nampeo visited the excavations at Sik- 
yatki and made pencil copies of the designs on mortuary bowls. 
From that time all pottery manufactured by her was decorated with 
modified Sikyatki symbols, largely to meet the demand for this 
beautiful ancient ware. The extent of her work, for which there was 
a large demand, may be judged by the great numbers of Hopi bowls 
displayed in every Harvey store from New Mexico to California. 
This modified Sikyatki ware, often sold by unscrupulous traders as 
ancient, is the fourth, or present, epoch of Hopi ceramics. These 
clever imitations, however, are not as fine as the productions of the 
second epoch. There is danger that in a few years some of Nampeo's 
imitations will be regarded as ancient Hopi ware of the second epoch, 
and more or less confusion introduced by the difficulty in dis- 
tinguishing her work from that obtained in the ruins. 

THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 

The ruins of the ancient pueblo of Sikyatki, consisting of mounds 
and a few outcropping walls, are situated on rocky elevations' rising 
from the sand hills at the eastern or sunny base of the East Mesa, 
about 3 miles from the modern Hopi pueblo of Walpi in northeast- 
ern Arizona. The founders of Sikyatki are said, in very circum- 
stantial migration legends, to have belonged to a [Keres?] clan called 
the Kokop, or Firewood, which previously lived in a pueblo near 
Jemez, New Mexico. Preliminary excavations were made at Sikyatki, 
under the author's direction, by the Smithsonian Institution in 1895, 
when there was obtained, chiefly from its cemeteries, a valuable col- 
lection of pottery, most of which is now installed in the National 
Museum. 1 

Little is known of the history of Sikyatki save through tradition, 
but enough has been discovered to show that it was abandoned before 
1540, the year of the visit to Tusayan of Pedro Tovar, an officer of 
the Coronado expedition. It was probably settled much earlier, per- 
haps about the time the Bear clans, also said to have come from the 
Jemez region, built the first houses of Walpi near the point of the 
terrace at the west or cold side of the East Mesa, below the present 
settlement. 2 Both of these prehistoric pueblos occupied sites exposed 

1 A report on the field work at Sikyatki will be found in the Seventeenth Ann. Sept. 
Bur. Amer. Ethn., part 2. 

2 Traces of the ancient village of Walpi at this point are still to be seen, and certain 
ancestral ceremonies are still performed here, in the New-fire rites, as elsewhere described. 



FEWKES] 



THE BTJIN, SIKYATKI 



219 



to attack by enemies and were not built on mesa tops, hence it may 
be assumed that there were no enemies to fear in Tusayan at the 
time of their establishment. But later, when the Snake clans from 
the north joined the Bear settlement at Walpi, trouble seems to have 
commenced. As above mentioned, the Bear clans came from the 
same region as the Kokop and were presumably friendly, probably 
kin of the Sikyatkians; but the Snake clans came from Tokonabi, 
in the north, and were no doubt of foreign stock, implying a hos- 
tility that may have been the indirect cause of the overthrow of 
Sikyatki and Awatobi by the other Hopi. 

The two epochs in Hopi ceramic development that can be dis- 
tinguished with certainty are (1) the Sikyatki epoch and (2) the 
Tanoan or historic epoch. The third, or renaissance, of the Sikyatki 
dates back to 1895, and may be called the modern epoch. The 
Sikyatki epoch gave way to the Tanoan about the beginning of the 
eighteenth century. It did not develop from any group preexisting 
in the neighborhood of the present Hopi pueblos but was derived 
from the east and it ceased suddenly, being replaced by a totally 
different group introduced by radically different clans. 1 

Sikyatki Epoch 

The most characteristic Hopi pottery bearing symbols of the 
Sikyatki epoch occurs in a few ruins near the Hopi mesas, but from 
lack of exploration it is impossible to determine the boundaries of 
the area in which it is found. 

Several museums contain collections of Hopi ware of this epoch, 
among which may be mentioned the National Museum at Washing- 
ton, the Field Columbian Museum of Natural History a,t Chicago, 
the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, the Peabodjr Museum 
at Cambridge, and the Museum f iir Volkerkiincle at Berlin, Germany. 
Many bowls of this epoch are likewise found in the American 
Museum of Natural History, New York, and in the Museum of the 
Brooklyn Institute. Several private collections in Europe and the 
United States likewise contain specimens of Sikyatki ware, among 
them being that gathered by the late Dr. Miller, now at Phoenix, 
Arizona. The collection of prehistoric Hopi pottery in the National 
Museum is particularly rich, containing many specimens gathered by 
the Stevenson expeditions, by the author, and by Dr.. Hough, of the 
U. S. National Museum. 

The symbols on the ancient pottery from the Middle Mesa of the 
Hopi are almost identical with those of Sikyatki, indicating a simi- 
larity of culture, a common geographical origin, and a synchronous 

1 Pottery making is a woman's industry, and as among the Pueblo the woman determines 
the clan, so she determines the symbolism of the pottery. Consequently symbolism of 
uottery is related to that of the clan. 



220 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTEBY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



culture. From the character of the symbols on the ancient pottery 
from the ancient Middle Mesa pueblos it is probable that the clans 
who founded them came, like the colonists who settled Sikyatki, 
from the Jemez plateau in New Mexico. Although the Field collection 
is very rich in old Walpi ware, nothing of importance has been pub- 
lished on the symbols of this collection ; it contains some of the most 
instructive examples of the Sikyatki epoch. A large and probably 
the most valuable portion of this collection was gathered by Dr. 
George A. Dorsey and Mr. Charles L. Owen, while many pieces were 
purchased from Mr. Frank Wattron, of Holbrook, and from the 
late Mr. T. V. Keam, of Keams Canyon, Arizona. The source of 
many of the Wattron specimens is unknown, but it is evident from 
their decoration that some of them are ancient Hopi and probably 
belong to the Sikyatki epoch and came from Shongopovi, Awatobi, 
or Sikyatki. 

Shortly before his death Mr. T. V. Keam sold to the Museum fur 
Volkerkiinde at Berlin, Germany, a rich collection of pottery ob- 
tained mainly from Awatobi and Sikyatki, containing several spec- 
imens of the Sikyatki epoch which are highly instructive. Some of 
the designs on the pottery of this collection are unique, and their pub- 
lication would be a great aid to a study of the most important epoch 
of Hopi ceramics. 

A large proportion of life-forms used in the decoration of Sik- 
yatki pottery are mythological subjects, showing the predominance 
of supernatural beings and their magic power in the minds of the 
makers. Like a child, the primitive artist is fond of complexity 
of detail, and figures in which motion is indicated appealed more to 
his fancy than those objects that do not move. It needs but a glance 
at the ancient Sikyatki life-figures to show a tendency to represent 
detail and to convince one of the superiority of the Sikyatki potters 
in this respect over those of modern times. There has been a gradual 
deterioration, not only less care being now devoted to the technique 
of the pottery but also to the drawing of the figures. This lack in 
itself is significant, for while modern ware reflects in its hasty 
crudeness the domination of commercialism, the ancient pottery 
shows no indication of such influence. Pottery is now made to please 
the purchaser ; in ancient times another motive influenced the maker, 
for then it was a product worthy of the highest use to which it 
could be put, since it often formed a part of sacred paraphernalia 
in religious ceremonies. 

Human Figures 

Sikyatki pictures of human beings depict men and women, singly 
or in company, and are few in number and crude in execution. Or- 



FBWKBS] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



221 




Fig. 12. — Human head with hair in 
characteristic whorls. 



gans of the body— hands, feet, arms, and legs — are often represented 
separately. The hand is portrayed on two vessels, and the foot, 
elaborately drawn, appears on an- 
other ; as a general thing when parts 
of the body are represented they 
are greatly conventionalized. The 
few human figures on Sikyatki pot- 
tery are crude representations as 
compared with those of animals, 
and especially of birds. Several of 
the figures are represented wearing 
ancient costumes and ornaments, 
and one or two have their hair done 
up in unusual styles; others have 
the body or face tattooed or 
painted; but as a whole these deco- 
rations are rare and shed little light 
on prehistoric customs. There is nothing that can be identified 
as a time count, calendric, hieroglyphic, or phonetic signs, or any 
record of historical events. 

None of the human figures are represented with masks or head- 
dresses to indicate the impersona- 
tion of kachinas, nor are there 
double figures or animal heads de- 
picted on human bodies. The ab- 
sence of animal or kachina heads 
shows one of the marked differ- 
ences between Sikyatki pictures 
and the designs so common on some 
other pottery, where a relatively 
large number of the heads of the 
latter occur. The best representa- 
tion of a human head is shown in 
figure 12, 1 in which a characteristic 
coiffure is shown. Fig 13 is identi- 
fied as a figure of a maiden whose 
hair is dressed in two whorls, one above each ear, like a modern 
Hopi maid. 2 Opposite this maid is a reptile or similar animal with 




Fig. 13. — Woman with serpent-like animal. 



1 Many of the illustrations appearing in this paper are taken from the author's memoir 
on the results of the Sikyatki excavations in the nth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., part 2. 

2 Hopi maidens dress their hair in two whorls, one above each ear, which on marriage 
are taken down and braided in two coils. There are differences in the style of putting up 
the hair, as appear in different ceremonial personages, but the custom of wearing it in 
whorls was probably general among ancient Pueblo maidens and is still followed in certain 
ceremonial dances in which women are personated by men. For the difference in the style 
of the whorls, see the author's series of pictures of Hopi kachimas in the Twenty-first 
Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn. 



222 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



head decorated with, two eyes on one side and a single foreleg. These 
two figures probably refer to some episode or Indian legend connect- 
ing a Sikyatki maiden with some monster. 

The maiden depicted in figure 14 is evidently kneeling, her knees 
being brought together below, and separated by four median parallel 
lines that are supposed to indicate feathers; the curved objects at the 
lower corners of the rectangular blanket probably are also feathers. 
One hand of the maiden is raised to her head, while the other holds 
an unknown object, possibly an ear of corn. The woman with an 
ear of corn recalls a figure on the elaborately painted wooden slab 
carried by women in the Hopi Marau dance or that on the wooden 
slab, or mbnkohu, carried by the priests representing Alosaka, Eototo, 
and other ceremonial personages. These painted slabs do not always 

bear pictures of corn ears, for those 
of the priests known as the Aaltu 
have, instead of pictures of corn, 
the corn itself tied to them; in the 
New-fire ceremony at Walpi mem- 
bers of the Tataukyamu priesthood, 
at Walpi, also hold ears of corn 
with or without wooden slabs, while 
those borne by the warrior Kwak- 
wantu are carved in the form of the 
sacred plumed serpent, which is 
their patron. 1 

Different styles of hairdressing 
are exhibited in figures 13 and 14, 
that of figure 14 being similar to 
the modern Hopi. The group of 
three figures (fig. 15) possibly illustrates some ancient ceremony. 
The middle figure of this group is represented as carrying a branched 
stick, or cornstalk, in his mouth. 2 The accompanying figure, or that 
to the right, has in his hand one of the strange frames used as rattles s 
in historic times by clans (Asa or Honani) of Jemez or of Tewa 
descent who had settled at the East Mesa. The author is inclined 
to identify the object held by this figure as one of these ceremonial 
frames and the man as a Yaya priest. 




Fig. 14. — Kneeling woman, showing- 
hair in characteristic whorls. 



1 The best idol of this god known to the author appears on one of the Flute altars at 
Oraibi. It has a single horn (representing the serpent horn) on the head, two wings, 
and two legs with lightning symbols their whole length. The horned plumed Lightning 
god of the KwakwantQ at Walpi is represented by plumed serpent effigies in the March 
ceremony or dramatization elsewhere described. 

2 In the Antelope dance at Walpi, a stalk of corn instead of a snake is carried in the 
mouth on the day before the Snake dance. (Fewkes, Snake Ceremonials at Walpi, 
pp. 73-74.) 

3 For descriptions of similar objects see Fewkes, Hopi Ceremonial Frames from Canon, 
de Chelly, Arizona, pp. 664-670 ; Fewkes, The Lesser New-fire Ceremony at Walpi, p. 438, 
pi. xl ; also Twenty-first Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pis. xxxiv, xxxv. 



FEWKES] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



223 



Another interpretation of the central figure of the group, figure 15, 
is that he is performing the celebrated stick-swallowing act which 
was practiced at Walpi until a few years ago. The last explanation 
suggested implies that the human figures represent Snake and Ante- 
lope priests, a doubtful interpretation, since, according to legends, 
these priests were never represented at Sikyatki. 1 

The character shown in another figure, not copied, may represent 
the supernatural being, called the God of the Dead (Masauii) whose 
body, according to legend, is spotted and girt by bands. The Little 
Fire god (Shulewitse) , when personated in modern ceremonies of 
the Tewa at Hano, is represented by a man daubed with pigments of 
several colors. He is personated 
likewise in the Hopi (Tewa) vil- 
lage of Sichomovi. 2 

Several Zuni ceremonies show 
evidence of derivation from east- 
ern New Mexican pueblos, 3 but a' 
critical examination of the origin 
and migration of Zuni clan re- 
lations of societies still awaits the 
student of this interesting pueblo. 
It is probable that Zuni sociology 
is in some respects like that of 
Walpi and that the present popu- 
lation is composite, having de- 
scended from clans which have 
drifted together from different directions, each bringing character- 
istic ceremonies and mythological conceptions, while certain rites 
have been incorporated from time to time from other Pueblo people. 

Quadruped Figures 

Representations of quadrupeds are almost as rare as human figures 
in Sikyatki pottery decorations. The deer (fig. 16, a) , antelope, moun- 
tain sheep, mountain lion, rabbit, and one or two other animals are 
recognizable, but pictures of these are neither so common nor so 
highly conventionalized as those of birds. 




Fig. 15. — Three human figures. 



1 As a matter of history, the Snake people of Walpi may have been hostile to the 
Kokop of Sikyatki on account of linguistic or tribal differences which culminated in the 
destruction of the latter pueblo in prehistoric times. 

2 The pueblo of Sichomovi, called by the Hopi Sioki, or Zuni pueblo, was settled by Asa 
clans, who were apparently of exotic origin but who went to Sichomovi from Zuni, in 
which pueblo the Asa people are known as Aiyahokwe. The Sichomovi people still pre- 
serve Zuni ceremonies and Zuni kachinas, although they now speak the Hopi language — 
an example of a pueblo in which alien ceremonies and personations have survived or been 
incorporated, although its language has been superseded by another. 

3 Thus the Heyamashikwe may be supposed to have originally come from Jemez. The 
Zuni Sumaikoll, like that of the Hopi, is practically Tewa in origin. 



224 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[BTH. ANN. 38 



Figure 17 shows one of two mammalian figures on a bowl, the 
surrounding surface consisting of spatterwork, an uncommon but 
effective mode of treatment. 

The outline of the animal shown in figure 18 is intensified by spat- 
tering, as in the case of the animal last mentioned. The black spots 

along the back and tail are ab- 
sent in other figures. The de- 
sign below the figure suggests, 
in some particulars, that of a 
highly conventionalized shrine, 
but its true meaning is un- 
known. 

The design in figure 19 has 
been regarded as representing a 
mountain lion, but there is some doubt of the validity of this identi- 
fication. Although the feet are like those of a carnivorous animal, the 
head is not. The two projections from the head, which may represent 
horns, are not unlike those associated with the two figures next de- 
scribed, which have been regarded as feathers. 




Fig. 16. — a, Deer ; b, rabbit. 




Fig 17. — Quadruped. 



Fig. 18. — Antelope or mountain sheep. 



The creature shown in figure 20 is also problematical. The ap- 
pendages to the head are prolonged, terminating in feathers that 
bend backward and touch the body. The anterior body appendage 
has two crescentic prolongations between which are parallel lines 
of unequal length. The posterior limb is jointed, the lower half ex- 
tending backward and terminating in two claws, one long, the other 
short, Between these extensions are two groups of slightly radi- 
ating lines that may be regarded as feathers. The body has feathers 
like those of a highly conventionalized bird, while the limbs resemble 
those of a lizard. The body is serpentine, and tail feathers are want- 
ing; both legs have talons like those of birds, and the appendage to 
the head suggests a feather headdress ; the line connecting the head 



FBWKES] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



225 



appendage and one claw of the posterior limbs recalls a sky-band, 
commonly found in representations of sky gods. 

The animal depicted in figure 21, which resembles figure 19 in the 




Fig. 19.— Mountain lion. fig. 20. — Problematical reptile. 

form of the appendages to the head and mouth, is suspended in- 
side of a circle in the one case and is half within a circle in the other. 



Reptilian Figures 

Several figures of reptiles and serpents occur in the Sikyatki col- 
lection. Figure 22 represents an animal like a reptile ; only two legs 




Fig. 21. — Reptile. Fig. 22. — Reptile. 



are shown in the design and the form of the tail recalls that of a bird. 
The head of this figure bears two horns resembling feathers in some 
respects; the legs terminate in four claws. From a projection at the 
posterior end of the body there arises a curved line dotted at inter- 
vals and terminating in feathers. The dorsal appendage resembles 
the carapace of a turtle, from beneath which feathers project. 
74936°— 19— 33 eth 15 



226 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[BTH. ANN. 33 



Figure 22 depicts a reptile from the head of which project horns 
and two long feathers. Its back bears a row of feathers, but it has 
only two legs. 

The legless creature, figure 23, has two triangular earlike feathers 
rising from the head, and two eyes ; a wide-open mouth, in which are 
six long, curved teeth, three in each jaw. The tongue terminates in 
an arrow-shaped figure, recalling a conventional symbol of lightning, 
or the death-dealing power of the serpent. The meaning of the nar- 
row line connecting the upper jaw with the tail is not known. The 
curved shape of the body of the reptile is necessitated by the shape 
of the bowl on which it is drawn. This figure may represent the 
monster feathered serpent of Sikyatki, or a flying reptile, one of the 

most mysterious of the elemental 
gods. It is interesting to note 
that while the effigies of the 
feathered serpent used in Hopi 
(Walpi) and Zuili religious prac- 
tices has a single horn on the 
head, the one here described is 
different from both, for it is pro- 
vided with two appendages re- 
sembling conventionalized feath- 
ers. The Hopi feathered serpent 
was derived from the same source 
as the Zuili, namely, clans which 
originally came to the Little Colo- 
rado from Gila Valley. 1 
The Hopi (Walpi) figure is in a measure comparable with that 
shown in figure 23 — each has two hornlike feathers on the head, and 
the bodies are curved in the same direction — that is, with the cen- 
ter (?) on the right (dextral circuit), the reverse of modern Hopi 
pictures, which are placed as if the figures were moving in a sinistral 
circuit. 2 

The form shown in figure 24 reminds one of a frog or a turtle. 
The body and feet are turtlelike. As in several pictures of reptiles, 
it is provided with an anterior appendage, evidently the front leg, 
which has characteristic claws. The row of white dots extending 
from the mouth through the neck represents the esophagus or wind- 
pipe. The author is unable to offer any interpretation of the append- 

1 See Fewkes, The Butterfly in Hopi Myth and Ritual, pp. 576-594. 

2 The clay images representing the Tewa plumed serpent on the Winter Solstice altar at 
llano have rows of feathers inserted along their backs (as in the case of the reptile shown 
in figure 22) as well as rudimentary horns, teeth made of corn kernels, and necklaces of 
the same. (Fewkes, Winter solstice altars at Hano pueblo, pp. 269-270.) A mosaic of 
corn kernels on a clay base {kaetuktci) is known in ceremonies derived from Sikyatki and 
Awatobl. 




Fig. 23. — Reptile. 



FEWKES] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



227 




Fig. 24.— Reptile. 



ages to the tail, but suggests that they may have been intended for 
feathers. Figure 25 a, b, is identified as a turtle. 

Figure 26 was evidently designed to represent several tadpoles 
swimming across a bowl between rows of rain clouds, the whole in- 
closed in a circle to which are attached five stars at approximately 
equal intervals. The form of the 
rain clouds reminds one of con- 
ventional tail feathers. There are 
six of these rain-cloud figures on 
one side of the field of decoration 
and five on the other. The tad- 
poles shown in figure 27 occur on 
the inside of the ladle. 

Winged Figures 

The term " winged figures " is 
here employed to designate all 
flying creatures, as birds, insects, 
and bats, even though they belong 
zoologically to different groups of animals. Among the prehistoric 
Hopi, insects and birds were designated by similar symbols and when 
highly conventionalized sometimes merge into one another. It was 
the custom of Sikyatki potters to give more attention to specific than 
generic characters of flying creatures, distinguishing different kinds 

of birds by the form of their feathers. The 
symbol of a turkey, an eagle, or a hawk 
feather was distinct from that of an owl, 
and each kind of a bird had its own special 
symbolic marking, espe- 
cially indicated in the 
different kinds of feath- 
ers. Thus it occurs that 
Sikyatki bird designs, 
instead of being realis- 
tically represented, are 
often so highly conven- 
tionalized that the genus 
can not be identified. 
The flight of birds, like the movement of serpents, is regarded as 
mysterious, and anything mysterious or uncanny has always pro- 
foundly affected the mind of primitive man. The chief visible char- 
acteristics connected with the flight of a bird are wings and feathers, 
and the kind of feathers of a particular bird led to their association 
with the supposed magic power of the bird itself among both the 
ancient and modern Hopi. Different kinds of feathers have different 




Tig. 25. — Turtle. 



228 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[BTH. ANN. 33 




Pig. 26. — Clouds and tadpoles. 



powers; thus the feathers of the turkey, for example, among the 
modern Hopi, are potent in inducing rain; those of the eagle or the 
hawk pertain especially to the power of the sun; a breast feather of 

an eagle is chosen as an individual 
prayer bearer. The feathers of an 
owl, like the owl itself, 1 are gen- 
erally regarded as having a sin- 
ister influence; but sometimes the 
feather of this bird is beneficial, 
it is believed, in making peach 
trees yield abundantly. From the 
variety of feather designs and 
the frequency with which they 
occur in modern Hopi ceremonies 2 
it is evident that the Sikyatki 
people, like their descendants, 
attributed special magic power to 
different kinds of these objects. 
In their simplest forms bird symbols are little more than triangles, 
the tail feathers being represented by appended parallel lines, which 
are mere suggestions of birds and may be designated as cursive forms. 
Such simple pictures of birds sometimes have, in addition to the 
appended parallel lines referred to, an angular or a curved line or 
hook extending from one of the 
angles of the triangle to represent 
a beak. Such triangular bird fig- 
ures may be free or attached ; in 
the latter case they are suspended 
from other figures or rise from the 
corners of a rectangular design 
when one of the triangles may be 
without tail or beak appendages, 
another may have parallel lines, 
while a third may take a form 
readily recognizable as that of a 
bird. The form of the beak and 
the claws of bird figures also 
varies, the claws often appearing FlG 4 2T.— Tadpoles, 

as simple crosses or crescents. The beak is sometimes toothed, often 
hooked like that of a raptorial bird. The bird is designated by the 
combination of the beak, claws, and body, as well as the feathers. 

DORSAL VIEWS OF BIRDS 

Among the conventional pictures of birds on Sikyatki pottery some 
are shown as seen from above, or dorsally, others from below, or 

1 The hoot of the owl portends disaster among the Hopi, as among the ancient Greeks. 

2 Every priest has a box in which his feathers are preserved until needed. 




FEWKBS] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



229 




Fig. 28. — Dorsal view of a bird. 



ventrally, and still others laterally. These pictures sometimes become 
so conventionalized that it is difficult to identify the parts repre- 
sented, as will appear from illustrations to follow. 

Figure 28 represents a bird design in which three parallel bands 
representing tail feathers of a well-marked type hang between two 
curved extensions that occupy the relative position of wings. In the 
angles near the attachment of these 
tail feathers there are two globu- 
lar enlargements which occur also 
in other pictures. The extremity 
of each winglike crescent is spiralby 
curved inward. Two semicircular 
figures representing rain clouds are 
surmounted by two parallel lines 
and a heavy, solid band, appear- 
ing at the proximal end of the 
tail in the position where the body 
should end, as in other figures 
where the rain-cloud symbols are 
much more complex. 

The two drawings shown in fig- 
ure 29 are the two halves of a single 
figure cut along its medial line. One of these halves is reversed in 
such a way that corresponding parts are found on the same side. 
Viewing these two parts in this position, we can readily identify vari- 
ous organs of a highly conventionalized bird whose wings are rep- 
resented by a curved body 
terminating in a spiral, the 
f J£ f s~~^ body decorated with rain- 

/ Y"* / / \ \ cloud figures and the bowl 

/ I f ailTi^nff ^ with conventionalized fig- 

^^^■H 1 1 P hBt ures. This is the only fig- 

/£) HB \1 I nng| nre showing (he distortions 

I mm an d reversions of the two 

XD^jfH MbS halves of the bird's body 

vj VI and appendages. 

I Homologous parts are 

m recognizable also in the 

bird design shown in fig- 
ure 30, but in this picture 
the size of the wings is greatly reduced, each consisting merely 
of two feathers. The rectangular body bears a single large 
terraced or rectangular rain-cloud symbol, three semicircular 
figures, and two triangles. Two tail feathers and two posterior 
extensions of the body, one on each side, are shown. There are 
three parallel lines on each side of these posterior extensions. In 



Fig. 29. — Bird figure, two halves restored to natural 
position. 



230 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 




Fig. 30. — Dorsal view of a bird. 



a bird design, figure 31, the body is decorated with four triangular 
rain clouds and the wings are extended. The tail has six feathers 
with a lateral extension on each side. The two detached figures asso- 
ciated with this bird design pos- 
sibly were intended to represent 
the shrines of these birds. 

The curved appendages are 
spreading in figure 32, and at 
their point of junction with the 
body arises a typical feather sym- 
'bol. The body has four solid 
semicircular figures, possibly rep- 
resenting rain clouds, and a single 
feather on the top of the head. 
Organs corresponding to wings, 
body, and tail are traceable, but 
they are somewhat modified in 
comparison with the forms al- 
ready considered. This design is partly surrounded by a band to 
which two star designs are attached. 

We find all the parts or organs associated with the bird designs 
already described represented in figure 33, but the details of the 
symbolism are more elaborated than in any of the preceding. 
Here the wings are bent inward, while the feathers have taken 
more angular forms. The head is 
rectangular, bearing representa- 
tions of two rain clouds just above 
the wings, while two others appear 
below. These have the same form 
as the cloud symbols shown in 
figure 20. Although this drawing 
is far from being a realistic rep- 
resentation of a bird, the presence 
of symbols characteristic of cer- 
tain avian features leaves no doubt 
that a bird was intended. 

In figure 34 is shown a Sikyatki 
bird figure still further conven- 
tionalized, but the parts are depict- 
ed in such manner as to make the 
identification as a bird practically certain. Head, body, wings, and 
tail are elaborately represented. The head is semicircular and sur- 
mounted by a headdress with three vertical feathers. The wings are 
large, each terminating in two symbols representing the feathers, 1 
with pointed distal extremities. The tail feathers have rounded ex- 




Fig. 31. — Bird figure. 



1 Compare with feathers, pi. 90, d. 



fbwkes] THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 231 

tremities and are three in number. On each side of the feathers of 
the headdress, wings, and tail hang figures of unknown meaning. 
This is one of the most instructive bird figures in the collection from 
Sikyatki. 

Figure 35 represents a very elaborate figure of a bird, readily 
comparable with the last mentioned, from which it differs in certain 




Fig. 32. — Bird figure. Fig. 33. — Bird figure. 



particulars. This bird design is replete with symbolism and may 
be regarded as one of the most instructive pictures that has come to 
us from the ancient Hopi. The view is from the back, the legs being 




Fig. 34. — Bird figure. Fig. 35— Bird figure. (Thunderbird.) 

much reduced in size, the claws alone being represented at each upper 
corner of the body directly under the attachment of the wings. The 
beak is invisible, but an elaborate headdress, 1 in which tail feathers 



1 Probably the serrated circle to which the headdress is attached was not designed as the 
outline of the head, but the headband turned out of perspective. 



232 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. S3 




Fig. 36. — Bird figure. 



are conspicuous, is a prominent feature. The form of the tail and 
wing feathers of this bird is" practically the same as the last, except 
that they are more elaborately drawn. Each wing has two feathers, 
and three others form the tail. The arrow points projecting from 

beneath the extremities of the 
wing feathers are possibly light- 
ning symbols. Each is crossed by 
two bars in the same manner as the 
tongue projecting from the mouth 
of the serpent shown in figure 
23, which is also a lightning 
symbol. 

The design illustrated in figure 
36 represents a bird, as seen from 
the back, with outstretched wings, 
recalling the lateral view of a bird 
shown in figure 54 in having 
smaller bird figures attached to 
the tips of the wings. The place 
of attachment of the wings to the 
body is embellished with crosshatched lines and stepped figures, 
recalling the rain-cloud symbols. The head is rectangular, destitute 
of a beak, inclosing two square figures with short parallel lines, rep- 
resenting falling rain, projecting from the upper side. On one side 
of the head is a semicircular de- 
sign. The tail has three feath- 
ers, the two on the sides being 
broader than the one in the mid- 
dle. These feathers are without 
markings, but the end of the 
body from which the}' depend 
is ornamented with stepped fig- 
ures surmounted by two hori- 
zontal parallel lines and two tri- 
angles. In the background, at 
each side of the body, there are 
dotted circles, suggesting flow- 
ers, a feature often accompany- 
ing designs representing butter- 
flies or moths. 

In figure 37 is shown a highly conventionalized dorsal view of a 
bird, with sickle-formed wings slightly extended, seven pointed tail 
feathers with lateral appendages, and a rectangular head with three 
semicircular rain-cloud figures. The globular enlargement at the base 
of the wings in one instance is accompanied by a fan-shaped figure. 




Fig. 



37. — Highly conventionalized figure of 
bird from dorsal side. 



FEWKES] 



THE BUIN, SIKYATKI 



233 





Fig. 38. — Conventional figure of a bird. 



The design shown in figure 38 is regarded as a highly convention- 
alized bird symbol, each wing being represented by a curved pendant, 
to the extremities of which feathers 
are attached. The body is rectangu- 
lar and decorated with a median 
horizontal white band continued 
above and below into black lateral 
triangles which possibly may rep- 
resent feathers, and flanked triangu- 
lar white areas on each side. 

In figure 39 the 
design has been 
so greatly con- 
ventionalized 
that almost all 

resemblance to a bird has been lost. The wings 
are represented by simple terraces, the body by a 
rectangular figure, and the head terminates in 
three points. It is possible that the limit of bird 
conventionalization has been reached in this vari- 
ant, and the difficulty of identification of organs is 
correspondingly great. 

The design shown in figure 40 would perhaps 
more logically fall within the series of circular 
figures, identified as sun em- 
blems, elsewhere considered, ex- 
cept for the extensions representing wings and tail. 
This is mentioned as one of the instances where 
organs of birds are combined with a circle to repre- 
sent the Sun god. 

Figure 41 resembles 
figure 40 in some essential 
points and may also be 
considered in connection 
with sun emblems. On 
account of the presence of feathers it is 
here included among the bird designs. 

Figure 42 exhibits an exceptional bird 
form as viewed from the rear. 1 Wings, 
body, tail, and possibly the head, are rec- 



Fig. 39.— Conventional 
figure of a bird. 





-Con v en- 
figure of a 



Fig. 



41. — Conventional figure 
of a bird. 



ognized after some study. 



LATERAL VIEWS OF BIRDS 



Drawings representing side views of birds are usually highly con- 
ventionalized, often taking the forms of simple geometric figures, 

1 See Seventeenth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pt. 2, pi. cxli, a. A circle is here drawn 
on each side of the bird. 



234 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[BTH. ANN. 33 



as shown in figures 43-45. The simplest representation of a bird 
viewed from the side is a triangle, but another, slightly elaborated 
^\" and a little more complicated (fig. 43), consists 

jgffl (, f a triangular body with curved lines represent- 

JBr^^Mp^ m S :1 bead and beak, extending from one of the 
EaJ ▼ angles, and with two short lines indicating a 
1^1 feathered head crest. The head of the bird shown 

/ f"\ \ * n ^S ure 44 resembles a section of a Greek fret, 
' ' which in figure 45 has become 

still further simplified. Figure 
46 represents a bird with tri- 
angular body and key-shaped head. Figure 47 
shows a similar design, except that the body is 
partly rectangular, with breast slightly concave. 
The body in figure 48 is simply an outline of a ter- 
race and the tail is indicated by five parallel lines. 

The bird design shown in profile in figure 49 is realistic, all the 
parts being clearly recognizable. This figure is one of four, each 
attached to a corner of a rectangle. 



Fig. 42. — Conven 
tional figure, of : 
bird. 




Fig. 43. — Triangular 
form of bird. 



Fig. 44. — Triangular 
form of bird. 



Fig. 45. — Simple 
form of bird with 
terraced body. 



Fig. 46. — Lateral 
view of triangular 
bird with two tail 
feathers. 



Another figure which may be a lateral view of a bird is represented 
in figure 50, in which the part representing the head is curved, the 
body square, and two obliquely twisted feathers represent the tail. 



Fig. 47. — -Lateral 
view of bird with 
three tail feathers. 



7 s 




Fig. 48. — Problemati- 
cal bird figure. 



Fig. 



49. — Bird with two 
tail feathers. 



This figure exhibits avian features more obscurely than those already 
considered, but the head and the tail feathers are quite birdlike. 

In figure 51 is shown a lateral view of a bird, seemingly in flight, 
the head and beak of which are birdlike. The wings, feet, head, and 

body are not difficult to recognize. 
Two legs and one wing are shown, 
and the well-drawn tail, terminat- 
ing in white-tipped feathers, sug- 
gests the turkey, which bird is re- 
garded by the modern Hopi as so 
efficacious in bringing rain that its feathers are employed in almost 
all rain ceremonies. The author has seen a similar drawing on altar 




Fig. 50. — Highly conventionalized bird 
figure. 



FEWKES] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



235 





Fig. 52.— Profile of bird. 



and other ceremonial paraphernalia among the Hopi priests of the 
present day. The white tips which characterize the tail feathers of 
the turkey originated, according to a Hopi legend, 
at the time when this bird dragged the end of 
its tail in the mud after a flood had subsided. 

The bird 
shown in 
figure 52 has 

a curved, FlG - 51.— Lateral view 
. _ of bird. 

elongated 

beak, a more or less angular 
body, two legs, and two small 
wings. The tail consists of 
three feathers 1 with character- 
istic projections. 

One of the best bird pictures 
on Sikyatki pottery is shown 
in figure 53. The body is somewhat triangular in shape and the 
wing is spread out, here shown above the back; the tail is provided 
with three feathers placed 
vertically instead of hori- 
zontally, and bent over at' 
their ends into triangles, evi- 
dently owing to the lack of 
available space. The beak 
is characteristically curved; 
the single eye is provided 
with a pupil. The long 



Pig. 53. — Lateral view of bird with outspread 
wing. 

claws, single on each foot, suggest an eagle, 
hawk, or other raptorial bird. The spiral 
appendage to the under rim of the tail is 
of unknown meaning. 





Fig. 54. — Lateral view of bird 
with twisted tail and wing 
feathers. 



The design shown in figure 54 is one of 
the most complex bird drawings found on 
Sikyatki pottery. The head is triangular, 
with an eye situated in the center, and the beak continued into a very 
large, elaborate fret. The body is rhomboidal in shape, the upper 
portion being occupied by a patterned square. Rising above the 

1 It is, of course, only a coincidence that so many of the Sikyatki bird designs have 
three tail feathers like Egyptian representations 



236 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTEEY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



body is a conventionalized wing, while depending from its lowermost 
angle is a diminutive figure resembling feathers. The tail consists 
of two elongate feathers, rounded at their outer ends and fused at 
the point of union with the body. 

Having seen how prone the ancient Hopi were to represent birds on 
their pottery and the extent to which conventionalization of these fig- 
ures prevailed, one finds 
many designs so closely re- 
lated to known bird figures 
that the tendency is to in- 
clude with them many the 
identification of which is 
doubtful. Certain simple 
geometrical forms originally 
derived from bird designs 
were copied by these early 
potters, presumably without 
intending to represent birds, 
but rather merely as deco- 
rative motives. Two of 
these problematic designs 
are shown in figures 55 

Fig. 55. — Lateral view of conventionalized bird. and 56. 





FEATHER DESIGNS 

A large number of conventional figures representing feathers 
have been identified, but there are many others which yet remain to be 
interpreted, and the particular genus of birds to which each should 
be referred is likewise prob- 
lematical. There is no doubt, 
from a study of the uses of 
different kinds of feathers 
in modern Hopi ceremo- 
nials, that each form de- 
picted on pottery represents 
a feather which played an 
important role in ancient 
Hopi rituals. 

Many unquestionable 
feather designs pictured on 
Sikyatki pottery are found 
depicted on serpents, or are attached to inanimate objects, such as 
rainbows, clouds, and lightning. 

It is probable that the majority of feather designs on ancient Hopi 
earthenware are included in the following types, to which no doubt 




Fig. 56. — Lateral view of conventionalized bird. 



FEWKES] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



237 



other forms of feather designs will be added later. These types 
are abundant in vessels of the Sikyatki epoch. 

From the above pictures of birds and many others it may be seen 
that feather symbols assume a variety of forms in sikyatki pottery 
decoration. There are probably more than 50 different designs, 
each representing a different kind of feather, and implying for each 
a distinct use or ceremonial efficacy, as among the modern Hopi. 
Our knowledge of ancient Hopi symbolism is not yet sufficient to 
enable us to identify all the different birds to which ^^—^^^^^ 
these various forms of feathers belong, nor do we — — 
know the uses to which all these feathers were put. 1 FlG 57 Feather 

Several wooden slabs and idols on Hopi altars symbol with black 

notch. 

have features drawn upon them, and many cere- 
monial sand-pictures contain designs representing feathers. In rare 
instances, as in the altar of the Powamu, 2 typical Sikyatki symbols 
of feathers are still used, but feather symbols of a form not found 
on Sikyatki pottery far outnumber those from that ruin. The exist- 
ence of one type of Sikyatki feathers on the figure of Pokema in 
kachina altars may point to the derivation of this feather sym- 
bol from Sikyatki, but some of these types are widespread. 3 

The forms assumed by feathers on Sikyatki pottery may best be 
presented by considering a few examples of the more common types. 




Figure 57 represents an unusual type of feather 
symbol, readily distinguished from others by the 



fig. 58. — Feather notch at the end, the edge of which is commonly 
symbol with black rounded. There are two subdivisions of this type, 
one with a dotted shaft (fig. 58), the other plain. 
This form of feather design is found in most unexpected associations, 
occurring on the heads of serpents or attached to various parts of the 
body and under the wings of birds. It also hangs from diametrical 
bands drawn across the inside of food bowls and from other objects 
constituting the decoration of vessels. In a few instances this type 
of feather is enlarged and constitutes the essential part of the de- 
sign, with other symbols attached. 

1 Feathers are among the most important objects employed in Pueblo ceremonies, and 
among the modern Hopi feathers of different birds are regarded as efficacious for different 
specific purposes. Thus the turkey feather symbol is efficacious to bring rain, and the 
hawk and eagle feathers are potent in war. The specific feather used ceremonially by 
modern Hopi priests is regarded by them as of great importance, and the same doubtless 
was true of the priests of ancient Sikyatki and Awatobi. Belief in a difference in the 
magic power of certain feathers was deeply rooted in the primitive mind, and was re- 
garded as of great importance by the ancient as well as the modern Hopi. 

2 Compare the sand-mosaic of the sun associated with the Powalawfl altar of Oraibi, and 
the sun emblem shown in fig. 98. 

3 Mallery (Fourth Ann. Rept. Bur. Etlin., p. 47, fig. 12) Ulustrates two clusters of 
characteristic Hopi feathers copied by Mr. G. K. Gilbert from petroglyphs at Oakley 
Springs, Arizona. The first cluster belongs to the type shown in our fig. 57 as eagle tails, 
the second to that illustrated in fig. 31. They were identified by the Oraibi chief, Tuba, 
and so far as known have not been subsequently figured. 



238 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[BTH. ANN. 33 



This type of feather sometimes forms a part of a bird's tail, but 
it does not occur in the wings, although, as above stated, it occurs 
under a wing or on the body or the head of a bird, a localization 
that leads to the belief that the device was designed to represent a 
breast feather, such as the Hopi now use in their prayers. In ancient 
Hopi symbolism it is often attached to circles representing the sun 
and represents a tail feather. 

In plate 76, a, three feathers are represented with pointed tips and 
without interior markings. It is one of the simplest drawings of the 
type mentioned. 

This figure illustrates a well-known type of feather symbol. It 
has many variations, all clearly differentiated from the form last 
described, from which it differs in its elongate form and pointed tip. 
What may be regarded as a subtype of this is marked with diagonal 
bands drawn either at right angles at one edge or extending across 
the figure and terminating at right angles to the opposite edge. 
Feather symbols of this type, which have not been identified with 
any particular bird, are constantly found in birds' tails and wings. 

The next design (pi. 76, h) is similar in outline, but the three 
feathers are painted solid black and are separated by spaces. This 
conventional form of feather is common on wings and tails of birds. 

The group of symbols shown in plate 76, c, has pointed tips, like 
the others described, but part of the shaft is painted, while the other 
is plain, the line of demarcation between which is drawn diagonally. 
This form occurs on the tails rather than on the wings of birds. 

The tips of the feathers in plate 76, d, are connected by a black 
band and are divided by short vertical lines. A distinguishing fea- 
ture of this symbol is the oblique marking of each feather on the 
right side, by which the feathers are narrowed at the base. A solid 
semicircular figure with a double notch ornaments the upper edge. 
The few known examples of this type of feather symbol are from 
the tails of unknown birds. 

The next form of feather, shown in e, differs from the last in that 
the shaft is spotted and the proximal end is cut diagonally in a some- 
what different way. 1 The tips are slit as in the figure last described. 

The width of the feathers shown in / is uniform throughout. The 
distal ends are tipped with black ; the proximal ends are each orna- 
mented with a black triangle. Midway of the length of the feathers 
are four continuous parallel horizontal lines. 

The two feathers shown in g have in one instance a black and in 
the other a white tip separated from the rest of the. shaft by an 
oblique line. The essential difference between this form of pointed 



1 Compare feathers, pi. 90, wf. 



FBWKBS] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



239 



feather and those previously considered is that the. diagonal line 
marking the tip is drawn at a greater angle. 

The six feathers shown in h resemble the last, but the terminal por- 
tions of three are spotted instead of solid black. Like some of the 
others described, this form tapers slightly from its distal end to its 
base. 

In % the feathers are likewise pointed at their tips, but are of 
almost uniform breadth. Each is intersected by a series of triangles 
and parallel lines, and suspended from the latter, one in each feather, 
are several vertical lines, each with terminal dots. 

The symbol shown in j is not unlike that already illustrated, but 
it has in addition to the structure enumerated a lateral hornlike 
appendage common in the tails of birds (see pi. 90, i, tf). 

The form of feather design shown in k is somewhat different from 
those already considered. The distal end is broad and pointed ; the 
proximal narrows almost to a point. The left half of the body of 
the feather is black; the remainder, including the point, is plain. 
The design I has the same general form as k, but its tip is marked 
in a different manner. 

The double-pointed symbol represented in m was evidently de- 
signed as a feather (possibly two feathers), with parallel sides, and 
pointed tips painted black. The symbol n is similar to d in outline, 
but it lacks the terminal slit and black bands. There project, how- 
ever, from the angles formed by the tips of the feathers three ver- 
tical lines, each with an arrow point at the extremity and two short 
crosslines, as in one of the bird designs previously described (fig. 
35). The present design represents wing feathers; the complete 
bird figure (fig. 35), where they also occur, represents a thunderbird. 

The three tail feathers shown in o are in no respect peculiar. The 
two-pointed appendages seen above are an almost constant feature 
of the drawings of birds as seen from the back. The feathers rep- 
resented in p are unlike others in their mode of attachment and in 
the ornamentation at the base. 

Thus far we have considered a type of feathers with pointed tips 
(pi. 76, a-p) imparting to the whole tail a serrate appearance. While 
in the next figure, q, the tail feathers still terminate in points, a black 
band connecting their extremities is prolonged at each side, recalling 
the tail of certain swallows. 

Feathers are often represented on Sikyatki pottery as elsewhere in 
the Southwest by parallel straight lines. The feathers represented 
in r are exceptional in that their length varies considerably, the 
median feather here being the longest. 

While undoubtedly the series of designs shown in s to hb, inclusive, 
in each instance representing the feathers in the tail of a bird, are 



240 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTEKY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



all highly conventionalized, in one or two instances, as u and bb, the 
relation to feathers can be recognized only by comparative studies. 

The design illustrated in cc, taken from the neck of a vase, repre- 
sents several peculiar feathers of a type not yet described but highly 
characteristic. Comparison of this with that of dd shows the simi- 
larity of the two and suggests that they pertain to the same kind of 
bird. The tails represented in v, aa, and bb are characteristic; the 
last represents tail feathers hanging from the band later described. 

The series of feathers (possibly tail feathers) shown in several fig- 
ures have rounded tips, and as a rule are of uniform size and without 
ornamentation. In plate 77, a, the three feathers composing the tail 
are painted black and are slightly separated, while those of b are 
half black and half plain, the solid area being separated from the 
plain by a diagonal line extending from the proximal to the distal 
extremity. 

The four feathers in c are separated by slight intervals and lightly 
shaded ; otherwise they are similar to those in a. The two outside 
feathers of d are much broader than the middle feather, which is 
reduced to a narrow line. In e the three feathers are broader at the 
tips, in which respect they differ from c. 

In the tail shown in /, the feathers are indicated by shallow notches 
from which short parallel lines extend inward. They are without 
superficial markings. Figure g belongs to the notched type repre- 
sented above. 

The four feather symbols shown in the drawing of the bird's tail 
illustrated in h differ from all others in the shape of their distal ends, 
which are alternately black and plain, and are without superficial 
ornamentation. Evidently this feather design, which is represented 
on a single vessel from Sikyatki, is of a distinct type. 

There is some doubt whether i represents a bird's tail, the head 
and body from which the design was taken being more like those of a 
moth or a butterfly. The meaning of the design in j is also doubtful. 
Figure k represents a single "breath" feather like that shown in 
figure 57. 

There is a general resemblance between the tail feathers of the 
bird designed in e and 1/ the latter represents the tail of a bird, hang- 
ing between two triangles under a star design. 

Figure m represents a bird's tail with three tail feathers and 
lateral extensions, while in n, where we also have a figure of the tail 
of a bird, each feather is marked by a rectangular pattern. The four 
pairs of parallel lines extending from these feathers may be regarded 
as parts of these structures. 

Figures o to q, while suggesting bird and feather designs, are still 
more or less problematical. In the same category belong the designs 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 78 

6 




CONVENTIONALIZED FEATHERS ATTACHED TO STRINGS (NAKWAKWOCI) 



FEWKES ] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



241 




Fig. 59. — Feathers. 

representatives 
from Sikyatki 




Fig. 60. — Curved feathers. 



illustrated in figures r to u. There is reason to believe that of these 
o-r represent feathers, but a definite identification can not yet be 
made of figures s-u. 

Two triangular designs, one above another, are 
believed to represent feathers, but are rarely found 
on ancient Hopi pottery. They appear on the 
heads of birds in Acoma, Laguna, and other 
pottery designs, which are the nearest modern 
of ancient Hopi decorations. 

A unique feather symbol 
is characterized by a cigar-shaped body out- 
lined at the distal end, which is plain (fig. 59). 

There often occurs on Sikyatki pottery a 
combination of feather designs, generally 
three, with other symbols. One form of these (fig. 60) has four 
curved tail feathers. Other feathers of aberrant shape are shown 
in figure 61, a-e. 

Featheks Suspended feom Strings 

In their ceremonies the modern Hopi priests 
use in great numbers a kind of prayer offer- 
ing called nakwakwoci, consisting of breast 
feathers tied in a prescribed way to the ends 
of strings. The same type of prayer offerings 
is one of the most common designs on Sikyatki 
pottery. Various modifications of it are shown 
in the accompanying illustration (fig. 62). 

This use of the feather string as a decora- 
tive device is seemingly peculiar to prehistoric 
Hopi pottery, not having been found in the pic- 
tography of the people formerly inhabiting the 
valleys of San Juan and Little Colorado Rivers. 
This restriction in its use indicates its local 
origin and application, although descendants of clans from both the 
San Juan and the Little Colorado are represented among the Hopi. 

tin one of the simplest forms of the stringed- 
feather designs is a line (pi. 78, &, c, d) some- 
times taking the form of an elongate triangle, 
terminating in a ball from which spring three 
or more diverging or parallel lines. This en- 
largement on stringed-feather designs may rep- 
resent a knot, as will appear from certain varia- 
tions in the form of the feathered string to which attention will be 
given later. . . 

•74936°— 19— 33 eth 16 




Fig. 



Gl. — Conventional 
feathers. 



Pig. 62. — Parallel 
lines represent- 
ing feathers. 



242 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



In some cases (e, I) two knots appear between the string and 
the attached feathers, while in another instance (/) one of the knots 
or balls is replaced by two triangles. 

Other representations of stringed-feather or nakwakwoci designs 
show modifications in each of the three elements mentioned, the 
line (string), the enlargement (knot), and the terminal projections 
(feathers). The occurrence of crossbars near the dot (g, h, i) vary 
in number from one to four, and are always parallel, but usually 
are placed on one side of the knot, although in some cases (i) they 
appear on both sides. In one example (j) no ball or knot is pro- 
vided, the nakwakwoci consisting merely of the string intersected 
by pairs of equidistant crosslines. A special modification of the 
dot with crosslines is shown in the figure with the leaflike attach- 
ment (q). 

One of the most significant of the stringed-feather designs is 
shown in a, where a feather of the first type is attached to the string 
intersected by crosslines. As a terminal element in corresponding 
designs is a typical feather symbol, this figure is also identical. The 
figure of a string with enlargements and a pair of lines (g) probably 
represents that form of stringed feather called by the Hopi a piorhu, 
" road," an offering laid by the Hopi on the trails approaching the 
pueblo to indicate that ceremonies are being performed, or on altars 
to show the pathway of blessings. 

In another stringed-feather design (n) appears a triangular sym- 
bol attached to the enlargement, the string terminating in radiating 
lines. The feather sometimes preserves its triangular form (m). 
These variations in the drawings of stringed feathers and the modi- 
fications of the knot, string, and terminal attachments, are constantly 
repeated in Sikyatki pottery decoration. 

Sky-Band 

Many food bowls from Sikyatki have a band from which is sus- 
pended the figure of a nondescript animal passing diametrically 
across it. Representations of a similar band with like appendage 
girt the necks of small pottery objects and are, so far as is known, 
characteristic of prehistoric Hopi pottery. 

Lines identified as sky-bands shown in plate 79 vary from single 
(a) or double (b) to a broad undecorated band (<?). In its simplest 
form the sky-band extends entirely across the inside of the bowl, 
but in the more complicated examples it surrounds the vessel par- 
allel with the rim surrounding the design on the inside of the bowl. 
Appendages of several kinds as dots (d) or as stars (/), made up 
of oblong figures in terrace form placed at intervals, are attached 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT 



PLATE 79 



b 




SKY-BANDS 



PHWKES] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



243 



to this band. The sky-band itself varies in width, being broad or 
narrow, crossed by series of vertical parallel, zigzag, or other lines 
arranged at intervals, or alternating with geometrical figures (g, h). 
In a single example (i) the decoration is etched into the burnt clay, 
although in most instances the decorations are painted. 

Various explanations of the meaning of this band have been sug- 
gested, it being regarded by some of the priests as the Milky Way, 
by others as the path of the sun through the sky, but so far as 
known this ancient design is rare on modern Hopi ware. 1 According 
to Harrington the Tewa recognize a " backbone " of the sky. 

In several Hopi legends there are allusions to a monster bird that 
had been killed and hung in the sky by a cultus hero; and the 
general character of this decorative band in Sikyatki pottery decora- 
tion renders it probable that it was intended to represent some 
supernatural being, as the Sky god. 

The chief interest of the Sikyatki sky-band lies in the figure or 
figures attached to it, or suspended from it, and regarded as the 
conventionalized representation of a bird. Sometimes the creature . 
is placed longitudinally, sometimes vertically. In some instances 
it is elaborately drawn, in others it is a simple geometric figure 
bearing so little resemblance to a life form as to make it one of the 
most highly conventionalized of all ancient Hopi designs. 

Like other bird designs, these suspended figures may be considered 
under two heads: (1) Those attached to the band in such a way 
as to be seen from above (the dorsal side) or from below (the 
ventral side) ; and (2) those suspended lengthwise of the band, 
showing one side in which the tail and other parts are twisted into 
a plane at right angles. The structure and relations of the hang- 
ing figure can best be seen by holding the bowl in such manner that 
the sky-band is horizontal, bringing the body of the suspended 
animal into the lower semicircle. 

VERTICAL ATTACHMENT TO SKY-BAND 

Several Sikyatki pottery designs showing the sky-band with the 
bird figure hanging vertically from it are shown in the accompany- 
ing illustrations. In order that the modifications in form may be 
readily followed, those parts of the bird figures regarded as homolo- 
gous are indicated by the same letters. 

1 The only design in modern Hopi symbolism comparable with the sky-band occurs on a 
wooden slab on the altar of the Owakulti, a society priestess whose ancestors are said 
to have formerly lived at the historic pueblo of Awatobi. This slab is attached to the 
uprights of an altar, by means of flat slabs of wood, some arranged vertically, others 
horizontally. On it is depicted, among other symbolic figures, a representation of a bird. 



244 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



The design in figure 63 represents one of the simplest forms of 
bird symbols. A hornlike appendage is attached to the sky-band, 
on each side of an elongate vertical body from which depends a 




Fig. 63. — Conventionalized bird form Fig. 64. — Conventionalized bird form 

hanging from sky-band ; top view. hanging from sky-band ; top view. 



number of parallel lines representing tail feathers. The identifica- 
tion of this design as that of a bird is based on comparative studies 
of designs less conventional in character, to which attention has been 
and will later be called. 




Fig. 65. — Conventionalized bird form Fig. 66. — Conventionalized bird form 

hanging from sky-band ; top view. hanging from sky-band : top view. 



A modification of the pendent body on the sky-band 1 appears to 
have introduced the new element shown in figure 64 in which the 
body is drawn. Although considerable variation exists in the form 
of the other parts, a morphological identity exists in all these figures. 
In figure 65, in which the feathers differ somewhat from those of the 



1 The author has seen in the American Museum of Natural History, New York, a single 
specimen of doubtful provenance, bearing a similar design. 



fewkbs] THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 245 

last design, the parallel lines representing the bird's tail are really 
seen. The design shown in figure 66 is still more elaborate than the 
last, especially in the anterior semicircle, 1 opposite that in which 
the tail feathers are depicted. 



Fig. 67. — Conventionalized bird form 
hanging from sky-band ; top view. 



Fig. 68. — Conventionalized bird form 
hanging from sky-band ; top view. 



The portion of the design situated in. the anterior semicircle of 
figure 67 has no resemblance to a bird's head, being destitute of eyes 
or beak. The backward extending appendages on each side of the 
tail and the tail itself has a projection on each side. 

In figure 68 the whole anterior 
part of the design above the sky- 
band is colored, the head appear- 
ing as a still darker semicircle. 
The tail feathers are here reduced 
to simple parallel lines. The gen- 
eral form of figure 69 is birdlike, 
but its affinity to the bird figures, 
pendent from a sky-band, is closer 
than to any others. The homolo- 
gous parts — tail feathers, lateral 
body extensions, sky-band, and 
head — may be readily recognized; 
the last mentioned is an orna- 
mented rectangle. The whole an- 
terior hemisphere of this design is occupied by representations of 
feathers arranged in two clusters, while in (he surrounding area their 
triple lines are crossed similarly to that occurring in other hanging 
bird figures. It is but a step from this figure to the group of unat- 
tached bird designs already considered. 




Fig. 69. — Conventionalized bird form 
hanging from sky-band ; top view. 



1 For convenience this may be designated the anterior in distinction to that on the 
other side of the sky-bnnd which may be termed the posterior semicircle. 



246 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[bth. ANN. 33 



The wings of figure 70 are outspread and the head consists of 
two terraced bodies conventionally placed. The body and the tail 

of this figure are not ex- 
ceptional, but dragon flies 
are also represented. 

Figure 71 presents a con- 
ventionalized bird seen in 
profile, and a broad sky- 
band to which are attached 
representations of feathers 
and other organs suggest- 
ing a bird. 

An animal depicted in 
figure 72 is one of three 
similar figures from the 
neck of the same vase, 
which are connected by a 
line or band. The design 
shown in figure 73 repre- 
sents a highly conventionalized bird hanging from the sky-band 
with head and wings on one side and tail feathers below. 




Fig. 70.- 



-Conventionalized bird form hanging 
sky-band ; top view. 



from 



BIRDS ATTACHED LONGITUDINALLY TO SKY-BAND 




The designs shown in figure 74 represent the simplest forms of 
birds attached lengthwise to the sky-band. The parallel lines on the 
left hand of the observer 
are supposed to repre- 
sent tail feathers and the 
curve on the right, the 
heads, or possibly the 
wings. 

One of the best designs 
representing a bird at- 
tached to a sky-band is 
shown in figure 75, taken 
from a bowl in the Wat- 
tron collection now owned 
by the Field Columbian 
Museum, of Chicago. The 
interior surface of this 
bowl is considerably worn 
by use, and the figure 
a little indistinct, but the 
extremities of a band appear. There is a fairly realistic figure on 
each side of a bird with head and wings above and tail below a 




Fig. 71. — Conventionalized bird form hanging from 

sky-band ; top view. 



FBWKES] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



247 



diametrical band. There are zigzag markings, supposed to repre- 
sent lightning, on the under side of the wing. The tail is spread 
out amply enough to show the different feathers which compose it; 
and at the bases or on its under side corresponding in position with 
like symbols on the wing there appear two zigzag figures. The 
significance of two curved bodies 
hanging from the sky-band, one 
on each side of the tail of this 




Fig. 73. — Conventionalized bird 
form hanging from sky-band ; 
top view. 




Fig. 72. — Conventionalized bird form 
hanging from sky-band ; top view 




figure, can not be satisfactorily interpreted, but the bird design shown 
in figure 76 has four tail feathers, a prolongation on the opposite side 
representing a head, and a curved extension comparable with a wing 
in other figures. The so-called 
wing terminates in a triangular 
feather. 

The two designs, figures 76 and 
77, have parts which evidently 
correspond, the latter being one 
of the most beautiful in the col- 
lection. Both represent from the 
side an unknown bird hanging 
from a band extending across the 
middle of the bowls. Although 
the details of organs are more 
carefully depicted in the latter, 
there can hardly be a doubt that 
similar animals were intended in 
both designs. 

It requires some imagination 
to discover a conventionalized 
bird in figure 78, but we may 
regard it as such. We have in this figure a good example of a change 
in outline that may be produced by duplication or by representing 
both sides of the body or its organs and appendanges in the same 





Fig. 74.- 



-Lateral view of bird hanging 
from sky-band. 



248 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



place. Three tail feathers are here apparent ; the body is square, with 
zigzag white lines, and the head, here twisted into a vertical position, 



has a triangular form. 




Fig. 75. — Lateral view of bird hanging 
from sky-band. 



The two crescentic.^ appendages, one on 
the right side,' the other onVthe 
left, represent halves of wings 
which are theoretically supposed 
to have been slit longitudinally 
and folded backward 1 in order 
that both sides may be shown on 
the same plane; the two bodies 
arising from the concave edges 
of these crescents — one to the left, 
the other to the right of the 
square bod y — represent legs. 
Their unusual form is brought 



about by a twisting of body and 
tail, by which feathers of the 
latter are brought to longitudinal 
position, and one of the legs is twisted to the right side and the other 
to the left. If the two appendages supposed to represent the legs or 
the two parts shaped like crescentlike knives were brought together, 
the two crescents would likewise merge into one, and we would then 
have a highly conventionalized bird with three tail feathers and a 
triangular head, the body being represented by a square design 
crossed diagonally by zigzag fig- 
ures each in its own rectangular 
inclosed field. 

Decorations on Exteejoes of Food 
Bowls 

The exterior surface of almost 
every bowl from Sikyatki is deco- 
rated with lines or geometrical de- 
signs. Many of these designs may 
represent animals, probably birds 
highly conventionalized or so aber- 
rant that the avian form can be 
recognized only by comparative or 
morphological studies. They are 
confined to one side of the bowl ; 
there appears to be little resem- 
blance and no connection between them and the figure depicted on the 
inside of the same bowls. Although linear in form, one end is some- 
times so crooked or bent at an angle, not curved, as to form a head, 
while the other bears parallel lines, representations of the tail feath- 
ers, terraces, or triangles. 




Pig. 76. — Lateral view of bird with ex- 
extended wing. 



1 See also Seventeenth Ann. Rcpt. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pi. CL, a, and cxlvi, d. 



FBWKES] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



249 




77. — Lateral view of bird hanging 
from sky-band. 



In plate 80, a, we have a characteristic example of one of these 
exterior decorations. The crooked end is supposed to represent a 
bird's head; to the other end, or tail, are appended six feathers like 
those already considered. A row 
of five stars is strung along the 
band. A likeness to a bird is very 
obscure in 6, while c shows several 
simple triangles with stepped fig- 
ures in the middle and triangles at 
the ends. Design d has a square 
form and two. triangles appended 
to each opposite angle. The ap- 
pendages on the remaining op- 
posite angles have four paral- 
lel lines. Design e consists of 
two highly conventionalized 
bird symbols, united to a third 
which forms the interior de- fig. 
sign. 

The design / recalls the sky-band described in the preceding pages. 
The extremities of this so-called band are enlarged into round spots 
from which arise parallel lines and triangular designs. From it 
hang terraced and crooked figures, while strung along one side at 

equal intervals are five 
stars, a common accom- 
paniment of sky symbols. 
The bird symbol comes out 
clearly in g, where the 
crook design with terraces 
is repeated. 

All crooked figures have 
a similarity in general 
form, some more closely 
resembling birds than 
others, and it is taken for 
granted that the intention 
of the artist was to repre- 
sent a bird in plate 81, a, 
notwithstanding the avian 
form is highly convention- 
alized. Design b is com- 
posite, consisting of a rectangular figure, to the angles of which 
are attached feathers. Terraced and triangular figures of un- 
known significance, stars, and other designs cover the rectangle. 
Design c is made up of a triangle with notched borders and a central 
rectangle with a dot characterizes this design ; it has also two tri- 




Fig. 78. — Lateral view of bird hanging from sky-band. 



250 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



angular extensions that may represent feathers. Design d resembles 
previous figures identified as feathers and terraces hanging from a 
sky-band. 

The most prominent part of the design e is a crook and parallel 
lines. In / are variously combined triangles with appended feathers, 
crooks, and terraced designs, so united as to make up a compound 
decoration of geometric character. 

The geometrical designs in the series, plate 82, a-f, may be inter- 
preted as representing birds in flight or with extended wings. Con- 
sidered in this way, it appears that we have in the figure on each side 
a highly conventionalized wing forming triangles with extensions at 
one angle, ending in terraces, crooks, or other designs. In these 
figures we constantly have a line that may be likened to the sky-band, 
each end generally terminating in a dot to which parallel lines are 
attached. 

Design a has two triangular bodies resembling the letter W , and 
the line terminating in two dots has two crossbars, while in b there 
is a union of designs. Elongated triangles terminate in lines which 
are enlarged into dots. These triangles are modified on one side 
into crooks with smaller triangles. 

From remote resemblances rather than similarity of form, c is 
placed near the preceding. Here a band is enlarged at the end rep- 
resenting the knots with attached parallel lines or feathers. The 
triangular pendants of b and the line with terminal dots of a are 
here represented. On the middle vertical of this figure is a 
trapezoidal design with notched edges. 

The elements of d form a compound in which triangles predomi- 
nate. Two W-shaped designs, e and /, have a form quite unlike <z, b, 
c, and d. Of these, / is the more complicated, but the similarity of 
the two is apparent. 

Plate 83, a, represents two triangles with serrate margins hanging 
to a horizontal band, one end of which terminates in dots and lines, 
the other with two parallel notched feathers. 

Plate 84, a-c, have the W shape shown in plate 82, e, f; the ap- 
proach to the conventional bird form with extended wings and tail 
being most marked in a. Design d on plate 84 recalls plate 83, /, 
with modifications that are apparent. 

The above-mentioned geometrical figures from the exteriors of 
Sikyatki food bowls show considerable variety of form but all can 
be reduced to a few elemental designs throughout in which the 
curved line is absent. The rectangular design is always dominant, 
but it will be seen from the following plate that it is not omnipresent, 
especially on the interiors of bowls. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY TH I RTY-TH I RD AN NU AL REPORT PLATE 81 




/ 

GEOMETRICAL FIGURES ON OUTSIDE OF BOWLS 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 82 




/ 

GEOMETRICAL FIGURES ON OUTSIDE OF BOWLS 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 83 




/ 

GEOMETRICAL FIGURES ON OUTSIDE OF BOWLS 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 84 




d 

GEOMETRICAL FIGURES ON OUTSIDE OF BOWLS 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY T H I RT Y-T H I R D A N N U A L R EPO RT PLATE 85 




B D 
CONVENTIONALIZED BIRD DESIGNS 



FBWKES] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



251 



Cukved Figure with Attached Feathers 

The curved spiral figures shown in plates 85 and 86 are combina- 
tions of simple and complicated designs, among the most conspicuous 
of which are feathers. When these figures are placed in the same 
position it is possible to recognize three or four components which 
are designated (a) spiral, (b) appendage to the tip of the spiral, 
(c) a bundle of feathers recalling a bird's tail, and (d) and (e) 
other parts of unknown homology occasionally represented. In plate 
85, A the appendage b to the spiral a is two triangles and two sup- 
plemental spirals arising from their attachments. There is no rep- 
resentation of c, d, or e in this figure. 

In B of the same plate the elements a, b, c, and d are represented. 
The appendage b attached to the tip of the spiral a has the form 
of a feather of the first type (see pi. 76), and four parallel 
lines, c, indicating feathers, are attached to the body. . The two 
toothlike appendages e, of unknown significance, complete the fig- 
ure. In plate 85, (7, the design a has two dots b on the distal tip, 
from one of which arises a number of lines. The fact that b in fig- 
ure B is a feather leads to the belief that b in figure C is the same 
design. 

Plate 85, D and E, have a resemblance in form, a and c being repre- 
sented in both ; b and e are wanting in E. The different elements in 
these designs can be readily seen by comparing the same lettering in 
F and £?, and in plate 86, A and B, where a new element, t, is intro- 
duced. 

Plate 86, B and E, are highly conventionalized designs; they sug- 
gest bird form, examples of which have been already considered 
elsewhere, but are very much modified. 

There can be no doubt that it was intended to represent birds or 
parts of birds as feathers in many of the above figures, but the 
perspective is so distorted that their morphology or relative position 
on the bird to which they belong can not be made out. In plate 86, A, 
for instance, the bird's body seems to be split in two parts and laid 
on a flat plane. The pendent body, t, in the middle would be a 
representation of a bird's tail composed of three feathers and with 
a double triangle terminating in dots from which arise lines of 
would-be feathers. 

Two of the parts, a and t, that occur in the last mentioned, are 
found in plate 86, B, in somewhat modified form. Thus the position 
of the tail feathers, t, figure C, is taken by feathers of a different 
form, their extremities being cut off flat and not curved. The bundles 
of feathers in B and C are here reversed, the left side of B corre- 
sponding to the right of C, and the appendage on the left of the tail 



252 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



of B being represented by the appendage on the right of 0. There 
are other remote likenesses between them. 

Spider and Insects 

Other flying animals, like bats and insects, are depicted on Sik- 
yatki pottery, but not as constantly as birds. The spider, and 
insects like the dragon fly, moth, and butterfly, are the most common. 
In Hopi mythology the spider 1 and the sun are associated, the 
former being the symbol of an earth goddess. Although no design 
that can be referred to the spider has yet been found on Sikyatki 
pottery, it is not wanting from Hopi (pi. 87, c). 

The symbol of the dragon fly, which occurs on several bowls from 
ancient Hopi ruins, is a line often enlarged at one end to form a 
head, and always with two crossbars near this enlargement to indi- 
cate wings. As this insect lives near springs and is constantly asso- 
ciated in modern symbolism with water it is probable that its occur- 
rence on ancient Hopi pottery has practically the same significance 
as in modern conceptions. 

Butterfly and Moth 

Five typical figures that may be referred to the butterfly or moth 
occur on Sikyatki pottery. These figures have in common a trian- 
gular body which suggests a highly 
conventionalized picture of a bird. 
Their wings are, as a rule, ex- 
tended horizontally, assuming the 
attitude of moths while at rest, 
there being only one of the five 
examples where wings are folded 
above the back, the normal position 
of these organs in a butterfly. 
With one exception, all these con- 
ventional butterfly figures bear 
two curved rows of dots on the 
head, probably intended to repre- 
sent antennae. 

fig. 79.-Butterfly and flower. Th e figure of a moth in figure 79 

has a body of triangular form, 
and the extremities of the wings are shown on each side of a medially 
placed backward-extending projection, which is the posterior end 

*The Kokyan, or Spider, clan is not made much of in Hopi legends gathered at Walpi, 
but Kokyanwiigti, the Spider woman, is an important supernatural in the earliest my- 
thologies, especially those of the Snake people. She was the mentor of the Snake youth 
in his journey to the underworld and an offering at her shrine is made in the Oraibi 
Snake dance. The picture of the spider with that of the sun suggests that the Spider 
woman is a form of the earth goddess. No personation of Spider woman has been seen 
by the author in the various ceremonies he has witnessed. 




IUWKES] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



253 



of the abdomen. These wings bear white dots on their posterior 
edges suggesting the markings on certain genera of butterflies. 1 
There arises from the head, which here is circular, a single jointed 
appendage curved at the end, pos- 
sibty the antenna, and an unjointed 
appendage, like a proboscis, in- 
serted into a figure of a flower, 
mounted on a stalk that terminates 
at the other extremity in five 
parallel extensions or roots. A 
row of dots about the periphery 
of the flower suggests petals. The 
figures are accompanied by crosses 
representing stars. 

The second moth design (fig. 80) 
has even a closer resemblance to 
a bird than the last, for it also has 

a single antenna 01' row of dots Fig. SO.— Butterfly with extended proboscis. 

connected by a curved line. It 

likewise has several curved lines resembling a crest of feathers on 
top of the head, and lines recalling the tail of a bird. The head this 
figure bears is a cross suggesting a female butterfly or moth. 2 

The body in figure 81 is crossed 
by five lines converging at one 
angle, imparting to it the appear- 
ance of having been formed by a 
union of several spherical triangles 
on each of which appear rectan- 
gular spaces painted black. Ahead 
is not differentiated from the body, 
but at the point of union of the 
five lines above mentioned there 
arise two rows of dots which have 
the form of circles, each inclos- 
ing a dot. From analogy these are 
supposed to represent antennas. 
Fig. 81. — Highly conventionalized butterfly. The middle of wing-shaped ex- 
tensions recalling butterfly de- 
signs are marked by circular figures in figure 82, but the absence 
in this figure of a head with jointed appendages renders it doubtful 
whether it represents an insect. The shape of the body and its 

1 Except that the head bears a jointed antenna this figure might be identified as a 
bird, the long extension representing the bird's bill. 

2 The figures of serpents on the sand mosaic of the Antelope altar at Walpi bear similar 
crosses or diagonals, crossing each other at right angles. The Antelope priests interpret 
this marking as a sign of the female. 





254 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



appendages resembling feathers indicate, so far as they go, that 
this design represents some bird. 

It will be noted that in one of the above-mentioned figures, identi- 
fied as a moth, flowers are indicated by dotted circles, while in an- 
other similar circle, figures, also surrounded with dots, are repre- 
sented on the wings. One pair 
of wings is represented in the last- 
mentioned figure, but a second 
pair placed behind the larger may 
have been confounded with the 
tail feathers. In one of these fig- 
ures from Sikyatki there is a row 
of dots around the margin of the 
wings— a common but not univer- 
sal feature in modern pictures of 
butterfly figures. None of the 
butterfly figures have representa- 
tions of legs, which is not strange 
considering how inconspicuous 
fig. 82.— Moth. these appendages are among these 

insects. 

A most striking figure of a butterfly is represented by six drawings 
on the so-called "butterfly vase" (fig. 83). These, like the above- 
mentioned, resemble birds, but they all have antennae, which identify 
them as insects. These six figures (pi. 90) are supposed to be con- 
nected with the six cardinal points which in modern Hopi belief have 
sex — the butterfly corresponding to the north, male; to the west, 
female; to the south, male; to the 
east, female; to the above, male; 
and to the below, female. The 
wings of all these insects are rep- 
resented as extended, the anterior 
pair extending far beyond the 
posterior, while both have a uni- 
form color and are without mar- 
ginal dots. The appendages to 
the head are two curved rows of 
dots representing antennae, and 
two parallel lines are the mouth 
parts or possibly the proboscis. 
The markings on the bodies and 
the terminal parallel lines are like 
tail feathers of birds. The heads of three figures, instead of having 
diagonal lines, are covered with a crosshatching, b, b, b, and are 
supposed to represent the males, as the former, a, a, a, are females. 1 

1 Rain, lightning, animals, plants, sky, and earth, in the modern Hopi conception, are 
supposed to have sex. 





FHWKES] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



255 




A moth with a conventionalized geometric form is represented in 
figure 84 with outstretched wings, a rounded abdomen, and a spotted 
rectangular body recalling designs on 
the upper embroidered margin of mod- 
ern ceremonial blankets. A like figure 
has been elseAA'here described by the 
author as a butterfly. 1 It occurs on the Fi G .84.-Motnoi geometrical form, 
stone slab which once formed one side of an Awatobi altar. 2 We 
have more complicated forms of butterflies represented in figures 
85-87, the identification of which is even more 
doubtful than the last. Figure 86 reproduces in 
its several parts figure 85, being composed of a 
central design, around which 
are arranged six triangles, 
one of the last being placed 
above, another below, the 
main figure, and there are 
two on each side. The design, figure 88, is 
circular, the alternately colored quadrants 
forming two hourglass combinations. The 
double triangle, shown in figure 84, resembles a butterfly symbol, 
having a close likeness to a figure of this insect found on the Awatobi 
tablet above mentioned. This figure also resembles triangular de- 
signs painted on the walls of mod- 
ern Hopi rooms and in cliff-dwell- 
ings (Cliff Palace). These figures 
present very remote likenesses to 
butterfly symbols and their identi- 
fication as such is difficult. 




Fig. 85. — Geometrical 
form of moth. 




Fig. 86. — Highly conven- 
tionalized butterfly. 




Fig. 87. — Geometrical form of moth. 



Geometrical Designs 

The geometrical designs on the pottery from Sikyatki consist of 
two well-recognized groups: (1) Purely ornamental or nonsymbolic 
geometrical figures, and (2) highly conventional 
life forms. Some of the figures of the second group 
may be geometrical representations of birds or other 
animals; but the former are simply embellishments 
used to beautify the objects on which they are 
painted. Purely decorative designs, not being sym- 
bolic, will not be specially considered, as they do 88. — circle 
not come within the scope of the present treatise. An wlth tnangles - 
interpretation of the significance of many of the second group of 
geometrical designs is not possible, although they probably represent 
animal forms. 




lr The Butterfly in Hopi Myth and Ritual, fig. 61, f. 
2 Ibid., p. 586. 



256 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



LEXH. ANN. 33 



The strictly geometrical figures so frequently found on pottery 
from Sikyatki recall the linear decorations almost universal in an- 
cient southwestern ware. 

No one who has carefully compared specimens of decorated pot- 
tery from Sikyatki with examples from any other southwestern re- 
gion could fail to be impressed with the differences in some of the 
geometrical designs from the two localities. Such designs on the 
Sikyatki ware are almost always rectangular, rarely curved. As 
compared with pottery from cliff-dwellings there is a paucity or 
entire absence of terraced designs in the ancient Hopi ware, while 
zigzags representing lightning are comparatively rare. The char- 
acteristic geometrical decorations on Sikyatki pottery are found on 
the outside of the food bowls, in which respect they are notably dif- 
ferent from, those of other ceramic areas. Designs on Sikyatki pot- 
tery show few survivals of preexisting materials or evolution from 
transfer of those on textiles of any kind. Such as do exist are so 
masked that they shed little light on current theories of art evolution. 

The designs on ancient Hopi pottery are in the main rrrythological, 
hence their true interpretation involves a knowledge of the religious 
ideas and especially of such psychological elements as sympathetic 
magic, so prevalent among the Hopi of to-day. The idea that by 
the use of symbols man could influence supernatural beings was no 
doubt latent in the mind of the potter and explains the character 
of the symbols in many instances. The fact that the bowls on which 
these designs are painted were found with the dead, and contained 
food for the departed, implies a cult of the dead, or at least a belief 
in a future life. 

Eain Clouds 

The most constant geometric designs on Pueblo pottery are those 
representing the rain cloud, and from analogy we would expect to 
find the rain-cloud figures conspicuously on ancient Hopi pottery. 
We look in vain on Sikyatki ware for the familiar semicircular 
symbols of rain clouds so constant among the modern Hopi ; nor do 
we find the rectangular terraced form which is equally common. 
These modifications were probably lately introduced into Hopiland 
by those colonists of alien clans who came after the destruction of 
Sikyatki, and consequently are not to be expected on its pottery. 
Their place was taken by other characteristic forms closely allied 
to rectangular terraced figures from which hang parallel lines, rep- 
resenting falling rain in modern symbolism. 1 The typical Sikyatki 
rain-cloud symbol is terraced without rain symbols and finds its 
nearest relative on pottery derived from the eastern pueblo region. 



1 Introduced into the Hopi pueblos by colonists from the Rio Grande ; its most con- 
spicuous variant can be seen on the tablets worn in a masked dance called Humis (Jemez) 
Kachina. 



FBWKES] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



257 




The form of rain-cloud symbol on Sikyatki pottery may be regarded 
as characteristic of the Kokop clan which, according to legends, 
settled this ancient pueblo. Modified variants of this form of rain- 
cloud symbol occur on almost every specimen in the Sikyatki collec- 
tion, and can be seen hanging from " sky-bands " with appended 
star signs or without such connections. 

The most common Sikyatki symbol of a rain cloud is shown in fig- 
ure 89 and plate 90, /, g. These rain-cloud designs rarely occur singly, 
being more often six in number, as if 
intended to represent the six cardinal 
points recognized in Hopi ceremonies. 
We find the Sikyatki rain-cloud symbols 
resembling somewhat those of the mod- 
ern Zuhi, or figures of clouds found on 
the characteristic designs on Little 

Colorado ceramics. Somewhat similar angular terraced forms are 
almost universally used in eastern pueblos as rain-cloud symbols, but 
the semicircular forms (fig. 90) of modern Hopi ceremonials, being 
apparently a highly, specialized modification, rarely occur on Sikyatki 
pottery. 

Stars 

The star sign occurs as an equal armed cross formed by the ap- 
proximation of four squares, leaving a central uncolored area. It is 

generally accompanied by a rain-cloud 
symbol or bird figures, although likewise 
found without them. We often find one 
arm of the component arms of the cross 
missing and two of the remaining arms 
adherent to a band; often these crosses 
have a circular enlargement at the junc- 
fig. 90.— Rain cloud. tion °^ their arms. A simple equal armed 
cross is the sole decoration on the interior 
of numerous food bowls, and there are several examples of St. 
Andrew's crosses, the triangular arms of which have been in- 
terpreted as representing four conventionalized birds; no exam- 
ple of a cross with unequal arms has yet been found on Sikyatki 
pottery. 

These crosses, like that with four arms representing the Sky god 
in modern Hopi symbolism, probably represent the Heart of the Sky. 
A similar cross is figured on paraphernalia used in modern Hopi 
rites or on altar slabs; when it is represented by a wooden frame, it 
is called tokpela, and hangs before the altar. The same object is 
sometimes attached horizontally to the top of the helmet of the 
74936°— 19— 33 eth 17 




258 DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY [eth. ann. 33 

personification of the Sky god. 1 The swastika is rare in ancient 
pottery and was not found at Sikyatki, although a single example was 
dug up at Awatobi and a few others were obtained from the Little 
Colorado ruins. 

A multiple cross, formed of three parallel lines crossing three others 
at an angle, generally accompanies certain conventionalized figures 
of birds and in one example there are two multiple crosses, one on 
one side and one on another of a moth or butterfly symbol. The 
multiple cross is supposed to represent six canes used in a game, 
and on a prehistoric decorated bowl from ancient Shongopovi, 2 we 
find what appears to be a highly conventionalized bird figure occu- 
pying one-half of the interior of the bowl, while four figures repre- 
senting these canes appear on the other. The bird figure, in this 
instance, is interpreted as a gambler's god, or a representation of the 
god of chance. 

Sun Emblems 

The most conventionalized sun emblem is a circle or ring with 
attached feathers. The Sikyatki design (pi. 87, b) is a circle bear- 
ing on its periphery appendages believed to represent feathers, 

with accompanying lines, gen- 
erally painted red, to represent 
the rays of the sun. 3 

The identification of the bird 
whose feathers are used in sun 
emblems has not yet been made, 
although the position of similar 
feathers on the body of other bird 
designs suggests that they repre- 
sent eagle feathers. The feather 
of the eagle is commonly associ- 
fig. 9i.— Ring with appended feathers. ate( j w ^ both ancient and mod- 
ern pictures representing the sun. Thus we have on a vessel from 
Sikyatki in figure 91 a design bearing four feathers arranged at in- 
tervals a quadrant apart alternating with radiating lines. If we 
interpret this figure in the light of modern symbolism the circle 

1 One symbol of the Sky god has the form of a Lightning god. It has a single curved 
horn on the head, lightning symbols on the legs, and carries a wooden framework in one 
hand and a bull-roarer in the other. 

2 Ttventy-second Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn., pt. 1, fig. 74. 

3 In modern Hopi symbolism the sun is a disk with representations of eagle feathers 
around the periphery and radial lines at each quadrant, symbolic of the sun's rays. In 
disks worn on the back where real feathers are used the radial lines, or the sun's rays, are 
represented by horsehair stained red. In ceremonials the Sky god is personated by a bird 
whose figure occurs on Sikyatki pottery. 




BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 87 




C 



BIRD, SUN, AND SPIDER AND SUN SYMBOLS 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 8& 




a 

CONVENTIONALIZED BIRD FIGURES 



FEWKES] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



259 





O ! O 



Fig. 92. — Two circles with figure. 



6, is facilitated by a corn- 



would be regarded as the sun and the feathers would be identified 
as eagle feathers, while the lines might be considered to represent 
the red rays of the four cardinal points. 

In a bowl found at old Shongo- 
povi, a ruin inhabited at the same epoch 
as Sikyatki, the sun takes the form of a 
sky bird. In this design the ring figure 
is replaced by a bird with wings, tail, 
and a beak, evidently the sun bird, hawk, 
or eagle (pi. 88, a). 

A theoretical interpretation of plate 88 
parison of it with the design painted on a bowl from the Wat- 

tron collection, now in the Field Colum- 
bian Museum. As this has all the 
parts represented in figure 75, the con- 
clusion would naturally be that the in- 
tention of the artist was to represent a 
bird figure. 

Ring or circle shaped figures are found 
on several bowls from Sikyatki, and in 
one case (fig. 92) we find two circles 
side by side separated by a rectangular 
figure. The meaning of these rings and 
the accompanying design is not known. 
Concentric circles diametrically accompanied with two figures, 
one with a head and two lateral feathers, the other with the 
form of a hash-knife figure, are shown 
in figure 93. 

In figure 94 the appendages of the 
ring design or sun emblem is much 
more complicated than any of the pre- 
ceding. Each of the four quadrants 
has two appendages, a cluster with two 
feathers, and a curved body with a 
sickle-shaped extension, the whole giv- 
ing a swastika-like appearance to the 
design. The interior of the circle is 
likewise complicated, showing a structure difficult to interpret. From 
comparisons with preceding figures this is likewise regarded as a 
sun emblem. 1 




Fig. 93. — Sun with feathers. 




Fig. 94. — Sun symbol. 



1 In the Hopi ceremony, Powatawu, as performed at Oraibi, a picture representing the 
sun composed of a number of concentric circles of four different colors is made of sand 
on the feiva floor. 



260 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



LETH. ANN. 33 





Fig. 96. — King figure with legs 
and appended feathers. 



The ring or circle shown in figure 95 hangs from a band that 
may be likened to the sky-band of previous description. 1 A tri- 
angle 2 is attached to the upper side of 
this band, while appended to the ring 
itself there is a featherlike object corre- 
sponding to a bird's tail and wing. This 
figure is unique in the Sikyatki collection 
of ancient Hopi pictography. 

In figure 96 we find a leg appended to 
the lower side of the ring balanced by 
three wing 
feathers above 

Fig. 95. — Ring with appended Ol" Oil the OppO- 
feathers. s [ te g^e, tWO 

curved or crescentic extensions project- 
ing from the rear, diametrically opposite 
which arises a curved body (head) with 
terminating sickle-shaped prolongation. 
This figure may be considered a bird 
design, having the tail twisted from a 
lateral to a vertical position and the wing raised from the body. 

In figure 97 we find a similar ring still further modified, the ap- 
pendages to it being somewhat different. The ring is here broader 

than the last, inclosing an area 
crossed by two lines forming a 
cross, with short parallel lines 
at the ends of each arm. There 
is a head showing a circular 
face with dots indicating eves 
and mouth. The head bears a 
crest of feathers between two 
horns. Here we have in place 
of the appendage to the lower 
side an elongated curved pro- 
jection extending to the left, 
balanced by a short, stumpy, 
curved appendage on the right, 
while between these append- 
ages hang four parallel lines 
suggesting the highly conventional feathers of a tail. The horns 
with the crest of feathers between them recall the crest of the Sun 

1 If we interpret the sky-band as the path of the sun in the zenith the solar emblem 
hanging to it is significant. 

2 Some of the significant sun masks used by the Hopi have the mouth indicated by a 
triangle, others by hourglass designs. 




Fig. 97. — Sun emblem with appended feathers. 



FEWKES ] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



261 



god, of the Kachina clan, called Tunwup, a Sky god who flogs the 
children of modern Walpi. 

The ring design in figure 98 has a bunch of three feathers in each 
quadrant, recalling the feathers of a sun emblem so well shown with 
other kinds of feathers in plate 76, b. 

In figure 99 we have a circle with four 
appended bifurcated geometrical extensions 
projecting outward on the periphery, and 
recalling featherless tails of birds. This is 
also a highly conventionalized sun emblem 
reduced to a geometrical figure. 
. In connection with all these circular fig- 
ures may be considered that shown in figure 
92, the form of which is highly suggestive. FlG - 98 - — Sun symbol. 
In the various modifications above mentioned we detect two elements, 
the ring and its peripheral appendages, interpreted as feathers, head, 
feet, and other bird organs. Sometimes the ring predominates, some- 
times the feathers, and sometimes a bird figure replaces all, the ring 
being lost or reduced in size. This variation is primitive and quite 

consistent with the Pueblo concep- 
tions and analogies known to occur 
in Hopi ceremonial paraphernalia. 
This variation illustrates what is 
elsewhere said about the influence of 
the magic power on the pictorial art 
of Hopi. 1 

The sun, to the Hopi mind, is 
likewise represented by a bird, 
or a compound of both becomes 
a Sky-god emblem; the horned 
serpent is the servant of the Sky 

Fig. 99. — Sun symbol. o-nrl 

We find among the modern Hopi several disks with markings 
and decorations of such a character that they are identified as 
representations of the sun. One of these is worn by the leader of the 
kachinas in a ceremony called the Powamu, an elaborate rite, the 
purpose of which is to purify from evil influences. This Sun god 2 

1 Pictures made by prehistoric man embody, first, when possible, the power of the 
animal or thing represented, or its essential characteristics ; and second, the realistic 
form, shape, or outline. 

2 Several Hopi clans celebrate in a slightly different way the return of their Sun god, 
which is known by different names among them. The return of the Sun god of the 
Kachina clan at Walpi, commonly called Ahiil, is elsewhere described. Shalako, the Sun 
god of the Patki clans, was derived from the Little Colorado region, the same source from 
which the Zufii obtained their personage of the same name. His return is celebrated on 
the East Mesa of the Hopi at Sichomovi, the " Zufii pueblo among the Hopi." Pautiwa 
is a Sun god of Zufii clans at Sichomovi and is personated as at Zuiii pueblo. Kwataka, 
or the Sun god whose return is celebrated at Walpi in the winter solstice, Soyaluna, is 
associated with the great plumed serpent, a personation derived from the peoples of the 
Gila or some other river who practice irrigation. Eototo is a Sikyatki Sun god, derived 
from near Jemez. and is celebrated by Keres colonists. 





262 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[BTH. ANN. 33 



is called Ahiil, and the symbolism of his mask, especially feathers 
attached to the head, suggests some of the Sikyatki designs con- 
sidered above. 

Rectangular Figures Representing Shrines 

The word pahoki, prayer-stick house or " shrine," is applied by the 
modern Hopi to the receptacle, commonly a ring of stones, in which 
prayer offerings are deposited, and receives its name from the special 
supernatural personage worshiped. These shrines are regarded as 
sacred by the Hopi and are particularly numerous in the neighbor- 
hood of the Hopi mesas. 1 They are ordinarily simply rude inci- 
sures made of stones or flat stone slabs set on edge, forming boxes, 
which may either be closed or open on one side. The simplest pic- 
tographic representation of such a shrine is the same as that of a 
house, or a circular or rectangular figure. A similar design is drawn 
in meal on the floor of the kiva or traced with the same material on 
the open plaza when the priest wishes to represent a house or shrine. 
Elaborate pictures made of different colored sands to represent gods 
are often inclosed by encircling lines, the whole called a house of 
the gods. Thus the sand picture on the Antelope altar of the Snake 
dance is called the house of the rain-cloud beings. 2 When reptiles 
are washed«on the ninth day of the Snake dance they are said to be 
thrown into the house, a sand picture of the mountain lion. It is 
customary to make in some ceremonies not only a picture of the god 
worshiped, but also a representation of his or her house. The custom 
of adding a picture of a shrine to that of the supernatural can be seen 
by examining a series of pictures of Hopi kachinas. Here the shrine 
is a rain-Cloud symbol introduced to show that the house of the 
kachina represented is a rain cloud. 

Sikyatki bowls decorated with figures identified as supernaturals 
often bear accompanying designs which may, from comparative 
reasoning, be interpreted as shrines of the supernatural being de- 
picted. They have at times a form not unlike that of certain sand 
pictures, as in the case of the curved figure accompanying a highly 
conventionalized plumed serpent. A great A^ariety of figures of this 
kind are found on Sikyatki bowls, 3 and often instead of being a 
rectangular figure they may be elongated more like a prayer offering. 

The rectangular figure that accompanies a representation of a 
great horned serpent (fig. 100) may be interpreted as the shrine 
house of that monster, and it is to be mentioned that this shrine ap- 
pears to be surrounded by radial lines representing curved sticks 

1 Fewkes, Hopi Shrines Near the East Mesa, Arizona, pp. 346-375. 

2 The sand picture made by the Antelope priest is regarded as a house of the rain gods 
depicted upon it. 

3 Seventeenth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pt. 2. 



FBWKBS] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



263 



like those set around sand pictures of the Snake and Antelope 
altars of the Snake ceremonies at Walpi. 1 

It is suggest- 
ed that the fig- 
ure below the 
mountain sheep 
(see fig. 18) 
and the circles 
with dots ac- 




companying 
the butterfly 
and bird de- 
signs may also 
represent 
shrines. At- 
tention is also 
called to the 
fact that each 
of the six ani- 
mal figures of 
the elaborate 
butterfly vase 
(pi. 90, c) is ac- 
companied by a 
rectangular de- 
sign represent- 
ing a shrine in 
which feathers 

Fig. 100. — Horned snake with conventionalized shrine. ^re visible. 

The general forms of these shrines are shown in figures 101 
and 102. The one shown in figure 103 is especially instructive 
from its association with a highly conventionalized 
f~ — i \ animal. 

The Sikyatki epoch of Hopi ceramics is more 
closely allied to early Keresan 2 than to ancient 
Tanoan, and has many likenesses to modern Keresan 
pottery. In fact, none of the distinctive figures have 
yet been found on true Tanoan ware in any great 
numbers. There appear also no evidences of incre- 




1 The author has a drawing of the Snake altar at Michongnovi by 
an Indian, in which these crooks are not represented vertically but 
horizontally, a position illustrating a common method of drawing 
among primitive people who often represent vertical objects on a 
An illustration of this is seen in pictures of a medicine bowl where 
the terraces on the rim normally vertical are drawn horizontally. 

2 In using this term the author refers to an extreme area in one corner of which still 
survive pueblos, the inhabitants of which speak Keres. 



Fig. 101/ — Shrine, 
horizontal plane. 



264 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 





Shrine. 



ment.s peculiar to the Little Colorado culture center of which Zuni 
is the modern survival ; consequently we look in vain for evidence of 

early communication between these 
two centers; possibly Sikyatki fell 
before Zuni attained any promi- 
nence in the Little Colorado area. 1 

Symbols Introduced from San 
Juan River Settlements 

Although the majority of Hopi 
priests declare that the earliest 
clan to settle Walpi was the Bear, 
coming from the east, by far the 
largest number of early colonists 
are said to belong to the Snake 
people which came from Tokonabi 
and other great settlements on 
tributaries of the San Juan in 
northern Arizona. The route of 
their migration is fairly well known from legendary sources sup- 
ported in late years by some limited excavations that have been made 
in ruins along its course, 
so that we know something 
of the character of the 
Snake pottery and the sym- 
bols, which these early col- 
onists brought to the Bear 
settlement at the base of 
the East Mesa. These are 
not unlike those found 
along the San Juan and its 
tributaries from the Mesa 
Verde to Wukoki near the 
Black Falls on the Little 
Colorado, west of the Hopi 
Mesa. 

This ware is commonly 
either black and white, or 

red, and can be readily distinguished from that of Sikyatki by the 
wealth of geometrical decorations and the poverty of such animal 
figures as birds, reptiles, and insects. The designs of that early epoch 
appear to be uniform and hardly distinctive from those that occur 
in all parts of the Southwest. 

1 There is no published evidence in Zuni legends that Sikyatki received increments 
from that pueblo. 




Fig. 103. 



Conventionalized winged bird with 
shrine. 



FBWKES] 



THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 



265 



We may judge of the character of the symbols and designs on 
pottery from the San Juan and from the ruins of Wukoki on the 
Black Falls of Little Colorado. It is characterized by an abun- 
dance of geometric figures and an almost total absence of life forms 
or painted figures of men and animals. The pottery is thin, well 
made, and sometimes colored red, but the majority of specimens are 
gray or black-and-white ware not especially different from a wide- 
spread type occurring pretty generally throughout the Southwest. 
Coiled and incised ware is more abundant than smooth painted, but 
these are not as varied in form as later examples. There is no evi- 
dence available that there was any very great difference between the 
Hopi pottery decorations of the first epoch and that of contemporary 
time in the Southwest. When the Snake clans arrived at Walpi 
they found the village of Bear people living on the terrace at the 
base of the East Mesa, possessed of a symbolism like that of Sikyatki. 
The combined clans, Bear and Snake, were later joined by the Horn 
and Flute, and it is not unlikely that some of the likenesses between 
the pottery symbols of the settlement on the terrace below Walpi 
and Sikyatki may have developed about this time. 1 

The designs on the ceramics of the Snake clans are best illus- 
trated by the prehistoric pottery from ruins and cliff-dwellings in 
Utah and along the San Juan area, where geometrical patterns 
far outnumber those representing life forms. This does not deny 
that man) 7 of the pieces of pottery from this region are finely made, 
equal in technique perhaps to some of the Sikyatki, but the geo- 
metric designs on San Juan pottery and that from Sikyatki are 
radically different. This difference conforms with tradition that 
the Snake clans left their homes at Tokonabi, in the San Juan 
region, and came to Hopi after the foundation of Sikyatki, which 
had probably developed its beautiful ceramic art before Walpi was 
settled. There is no evidence that the potters of the Snake clan 
ever introduced any modification in the symbolic decoration of 
pottery by the women of Sikyatki. 

Symbols Introduced by the Snake People 

The designs on pottery taken from prehistoric ruins of pueblos 
or villages once inhabited by the Snake clans claim the archeologist's 
especial attention. These clans were the most important early addi- 
tions to the Hopi villages and no doubt influenced early Hopi 
symbolism. There is little trace in early pottery that can be rec- 
ognized as peculiar to the Snake. The Snake clans formerly lived 
at Betatakin, Kitsiel, and neighboring ruins. 



1 Since the author*s work at Sikyatki, excavations have been made by the Field Colum- 
bian Museum at this ruin, but nothing bearing on the relations of symbols has been pub- 
lished so far as known to the writer. 



266 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



Among many significant differences that occur between the de- 
signs on pottery from the ruins in Navaho National Monument and 
those of Sikyatki may be mentioned the rarity of bird designs and 
the conventional feathers above described. Parallel lines and tri- 
angles have been found on the pottery from Kitsiel and Betatakin. 
Terraced figures are common; spirals are rare. Pottery designs 
from this region are simpler and like those of the Mesa Verde cliff- 
houses and the ruins along the San Juan River. Not only do the 
designs on prehistoric Sikyatki pottery have little resemblance to 
those from Tokonabi, a former home of the Snake clan, but the 
pottery from this region of Arizona is of coarser texture and differ- 
ent color. It is the same as that of the San Juan area, the decora- 
tions on which are about uniform with those from the Mesa Verde 
and Chelly Can3^on. The best vases and bowls are of red or black- 
and-white ware. 

In the pottery symbols of the clans that lived at Tokonabi (Kit- 
siel, Betatakin, etc.) the archaic predominated. The passage archi- 
tecturally from the fragile-walled dwelling into Prudden's pueblo 
" unit type " had taken place, but the pottery had not yet been 
greatly modified. Even after the Snake clans moved to Wukoki, 
near the Black Falls of the Little Colorado, we still find the sur- 
vival of geometrical designs characteristic of the prepuebloan epoch. 
Consequently when the Snake clans came to Walpi and joined the 
Hopi they brought no new symbols and introduced no great changes 
in symbols. The influence of the clans from the north was slight — • 
too small to greatly influence the development of Hopi symbolism. 

TANOAN EPOCH 

The Tanoan epoch in the chronology of Hopi pottery symbolism 
is markedly different from the Keresan. It began with the influx 
of Tanoan clans, either directly or by way of Zufii and the Little 
Colorado, being represented in modern times by the early creations 
of Hano women, like Nampeo. It is clearly marked and readily 
distinguished from the Sikyatki epoch, being well represented in 
eastern museums by pottery collected from Hano, the Tewan pueblo 
on the East Mesa. 

Migrations of Tanoan clans into the Hopi country began very 
early in Hopi history, but waves of colonists with Tanoan kinship 
came to Walpi at the close of the seventeenth century as a result of 
the great rebellion (1680), when the number of colonists from the 
Eio Grande pueblos was very large. The Badger, Kachina, Asa, 
and Hano clans seem to have been the most numerous and important 
in modifying sociological conditions, especially at the East Mesa of 
the Hopi. Some of these came directly to Walpi, others entered by 



FEWKES J 



TANOAN EPOCH 



267 



Avay ' of Zufri, and still others by way of Awatobi. They brought 
•with them Tanoan and Keresan symbolism and Little Colorado 
elements, all of which were incorporated. The Tanoan symbols are 
very difficult to differentiate individually but created a considerable 
modification in the artistic products, as a whole. 

The symbolism that the colonists from the Little Colorado settle- 
ments brought to Walpi was mixed in character, containing certain 
Gila Valley elements. Among the last-mentioned were increments 
derived directly from Zuni, as shown in the symbolism of their pot- 
tery. Among the most important thus introduced were contributions 
of the Asa, Kachina, Badger, and Butterfly clans. The most im- 
portant element from the Little Colorado clans that originally came 
from the Gila Valley (Palatkwabi) are those connected with the 
plumed serpent. 1 It is possible to trace successive epochs in the 
history of ceramic decor a/ion in the Little Colorado ruins and to 
identify, in a measure, the clans with which these epochs were asso- 
ciated, but to follow out this identification in this paper would take 
me too far afield and lead into a discussion of areas far distant from 
the Hopi, for it belongs more especially to the history of ceramic 
decorations of Zuni decoration and composition. 2 In the present 
article all the Little Colorado influences are treated as belonging to 
the Tanoan epoch, which seems to have been the dominant one in the 
Little Colorado when emigration, comparatively modern in time, 
began to Hopi. 

Symbols Introduced from the Little Colorado 

After the destruction of Sikyatki there was apparently a marked 
deterioration in the excellence of Hopi ceramics, which continued as 
late as the overthrow of Awatobi, when the Sikyatki epoch ceased. 
Shortly before that date and for a few years later there was a 
notable influx of foreigners into Hopiland; a number of southern 
clans from the Little Colorado successively joined the Hopi, bringing 
with them cultural conceptions and symbolic designs somewhat 
different from those existing previously to their advent. Among 
these clans are those known in migration legends as the Patki peoples. 
Although we can not distinguish a special Patki epoch in Hopi 
ceramics, we have some ideas of the nature of Patki symbolism 
from large collections from Homolobi, Chevlon, and Chavez Pass. 

1 The Tanoan people (clans) also introduced a horned snake, but different in symbolism 
from that of the Patki clans. 

2 The oldest pottery in the Zufii Valley belongs to the same group as that of the oldest 
Little Colorado ruins and shows marked Gila Valley symbolism. The modern pottery of 
Zuni is strongly influenced by Tanoan characters. As these have been transmitted to 
Hopi they are considered under the term " Tanoan epoch," derived from Little Colorado 
settlements to which Zulu culturally belongs. 



268 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



From traditions and ceremonial objects now in use we also know 
something of the nature of the objective symbols they introduced into 
Walpi, and we can detect some of these on pottery and other objects 
used in ceremonies at Walpi. Some of these symbols did not come 
directly from the Little Colorado ruins, but went first to Awatobi 
and from there to Walpi 1 after the destruction of the former pueblo 
in the autumn of the year 1700. The arrival of southern clans at the 
East Mesa with their characteristic symbols occurred approximately 
in the seventeenth century, about 200 years after the date of the 
discovery of Hopi by Tovar. Awatobi received the Rabbit, Tobacco, 
and other clans from this migration from the south between the } r ears 
1632 and 1700, and Walpi received the Patki shortly after or at the 
same time the Hano clans came from the far east. The similarities 
in ancient pottery from the Little Colorado and that belonging to the 
Sikyatki epoch can not be ascribed to anything more profound than 
superficial contact. It is not probable that the ancient pottery of 
Awatobi or that of Kawaika and other Keres pueblos on the Awatobi 
mesa or in the adjacent plain was modified in any considerable degree 
by incoming clans from the south, but survived the Sikyatki epoch 
a century after Sikyatki had been destroyed. 

The advent of the clans from the Little Colorado into the Hopi 
country was too late to seriously affect the classic period of Hopi 
ceramics ; it appears also not to have exerted any great influence on 
later times. Extensive excavations made at Homolobi, Chevlon, and 
Chavez Pass have revealed much pottery which gives a good idea of 
the symbolism characteristic of the clans living along this valley, 
which resembles in some respects the classic Hopi pottery of the time 
of Sikyatki, but several of these likenesses elate back to a time before 
the union of the Hopi and Little Colorado clans. As a rule the bird 
figures on pottery from Homolobi, Chevlon, Chavez Pass, and other 
representative Little Colorado ruins are more realistic and less con- 
ventionalized and complex than those from Sikyatki. The peculiar 
forms of feathers found so constantly in the latter do not occur in the 
former, nor does the sky-band with its dependent bird figure ever 
occur on Little Colorado ware. We are here dealing with less-devel- 
oped conventionalism, a cruder art, and less specialized symbolism. 
Even if the colors of the pottery did not at once separate them, the 
expert can readily declare whether he is dealing with a bowl from 
Sikyatki or Homolobi. There are, to be sure, likenesses, but well- 
marked differences of local development. The resemblances and dif- 
ferences in the case of bird figures on prehistoric Hopi ware and that 
from the ruins on the Little Colorado can be readily shown by consid- 
ering figures 105, 106, and 107, found at Homolobi and Chevlon, and 



1 Pakateomo in the plain below Walpi was their first Hopi settlement. 



FEWKES] 



TANOAK EPOCH 



269 



the corresponding preceding bird figures. It may be interesting to 
instance another example. Figure 104 shows a lateral view of a bird 
with wings extended, bearing marginal dentations representing feath- 
ers on the breast and a tail composed of four triangular feathers and 
two eyes, each with iris and pupil. The upper and lower jaws in this 
figure are extended to form a beak, as is customary in bird designs 
from the Little Colorado ruins, but never found at Sikyatki. In 
figure 105 we have another lateral view of a characteristic bird design 




Fig. 104. — Lateral view of bird with double eyes. 



from the Little Colorado region, and figures 106 and 107 show hour- 
glass bodies, a special feature of the same region. 

In the same way many other distinctive characteristics separating 
figures of animals from the two regions might be mentioned. Those 
above given may suffice to show that each is distinctive and in a way 
specialized in its development, but the main reason to believe that 
the clans from the Little Colorado never affected the symbolism of 
Sikyatki is the fact that the latter ruin was destroyed before these 
clans joined the Hopi villages. 



270 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



The ruins Homolobi and Chevlon were probably inhabited well 
into historic times, although there is no archeological evidence that 
artifacts from them were modified by European influences. The 
symbolism on pottery shows that their culture was composite and 
seems to have been the result of acculturation from both south and 
east. Some of the clans, as the Tobacco, that peopled these settle- 
ments joined Awatobi before its overthrow, while others settled at 
Pakatcomo, the ruins of which near Walpi are still visible, and later 
united with the people of the largest village of the East Mesa. So 
far as known, Sikyatki had been destroyed before any considerable 

number of people had entered 
the Hopi country from the 
Little Colorado, 1 the event oc- 
curring comparatively late in 
historjr. 

The pottery from the Little 
Colorado differs from prehis- 
toric Hopi ware much less 
with respect to geometrical 
designs than life forms. The 
break in the encircling line, 
or, as it is called, the life gate, 
which is almost universally 
found on the ancient Hopi 
vases,- bowls, dippers, and 
other objects, occurs likewise 
fig. 105.— Lateral view of bird with double eyes. on po ttery from Little Colo- 
rado ruins. Some of the encircling lines from this region have more 
than one break, and in one instance the edges of the break have 
appendages, a rare feature found in both prehistoric Hopi and Little 
Colorado ware. 2 

The influence of Keres culture on Zuni may be shown in several 
ways, thus: A specimen of red ware from a shrine on Thunder 
Mountain, an old Zuni site, is decorated with symbolic feathers 
recalling those on Sikyatki ware ascribed to eastern influence. The 
nonappearance of Keres and Tewa symbols on ancient pottery from 
the Zuni Valley ruins, Heshotauthla and Halonawan, and their 

1 As has been pointed out, the designs on ancient Zuni ware are closely related to those 
of ruins farther down the Little Colorado, and are not Hopi. Modern Zuiii as well as 
modern Hopi pueblos were influenced by Keres and Tewa culture superimposed on the 
preexisting culture, which largely came from the Gila. 

2 No invariable connection was found in the relative position of this break and figures 
of birds or other animals inclosed by the broken band. The gaps in different encircling 
bands on the same bowl are either diametrically opposite each other or separated by a 
quadrant, a variation that would appear to indicate that they were not made use of in a 
determination of the orientation of the vessel while in ceremonial use, as is true of certain 
baskets of modern Navaho. 




FBWKES] 



TAN 0 AN" EPOCH 



271 



existence in the mountain shrine above mentioned, implies that the 
latter settlement is more modern, and that the eastern clans united 
with preexisting Little Colorado clans comparatively late in its 
history. The first settlements in Zuni Valley were made by colonists 
from the Gila. There are several ceremonies in the Walpi ritual 
which, like the New Fire, although immediately derived from Awa- 
tobi, came originally from Little Colorado pueblos, and other cere- 




Fio. 106. — Bird with double eyes. 



monies came directly to Walpi from the same original source. 
Among the former are those introduced by the Piba (Tobacco) clan, 
which brought to Walpi a secret fraternity called the Tataukyamu. 
This brotherhood came directly from Awatobi, but the Tobacco clan 
from which it was derived once lived in a pueblo on the Little Colo- 
rado, now a ruin at Chevlon, midway between Holbrook and Wins- 
low. 1 The identification of the Chevlon ruin with the historic 

1 The author has the following evidence that the inhabitants of the village at Chevlon 
were the historic Chipias. The Hopi have a legend that the large ruin called Tcipiaiya 
by the Zuui was also situated on a river midway between Walpi and Zuui. The Hopi 
also say that the Chevlon pueblo was inhabited by the Piba (Tobacco) clan and that the 
Awatobi chief, Tapolo, who brought the Tataukyamu fraternity to Walpi from Awatobi, 
belonged to the Tobacco clan. The Tewa name of the Tataukyamu is Tcipiaiyu, or " men 
from Tcipia." 



272 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



Chipias has an important bearing on the age of the Little Colorado 
ruins, for Padre Arvide, a Franciscan missionary, was killed in 1632 
by the Chipias, who lived west of Zuni. In other words, their 
pueblo was then inhabited. 

We know that the Piba joined Awatobi before 1700, or the year it 
was destroyed; consequently the desertion of the Chevlon ruin 
(Chipiaya, or Tcipiaiya) evidently occurred between 1632 and 1700, 



Pig. 107. — Two birds with rain clouds. 

not so much on account of Apache inroads as from fear of punish- 
ment by the Spaniards. 1 As no clans from the other large pueblo on 
the Little Colorado or Homolobi joined Awatobi, we can not defi- 
nitely fix the date that this group fled to the north, but it was prob- 
ably not long after the time the Chevlon clans migrated to Awatobi, 
from which it follows that the Little Colorado settlements were in- 
habited up to the middle of the seventeenth century. While the 

1 It is known from an inscription on El Morro that a punitive expedition to avenge the 
death of Father Letrado was sent out under Lujan in the spring of 1632, hence the guilty 
inhabitants may have abandoned their settlement and departed for Hop! at about that 
time. 



FBWKBS] 



TANOAN EPOCH 



273 



Little Colorado clans did not influence the Sikyatki pottery, they did 
affect the potters of Awatobi to a limited extent and introduced some 
symbols into Walpi in the middle of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries. Among these influences may be mentioned those derived 
from Awatobi after its destruction in 1700. It is not possible to 
state definitely what modifications in pottery symbols were intro- 
duced into Walpi by the potters of the clans from Awatobi and the 
Little Colorado. Possibly no considerable modification resulted 
from their advent, as there was already more or less similarity in 
the pottery from these geographical localities. The southern clans 
introduced some novelties in ceremonies, especially in the Winter 
Solstice and New-fire festivals and in the rites of the Horned Serpent 
at the Spring Equinox. 

Symbols Introduced by the Badger and Kachina Clans 

As the clans which came to the Hopi country from Zuhi were com- 
paratively late arrivals of Tewa colonists long after the destruction 
of Sikyatki, their potters exerted no influence on the Sikyatki potters. 
The ancient Hopi ceramic art had become extinct when the clans 
from Awatobi, the pueblos on the Little Colorado, and the late Tewa, 
united with the Walpi settlement on the East Mesa. The place 
whence we can now obtain information of the character of the sym- 
bolism of the Asa, Butterfly, Badger, and other Tewan clans is in 
certain ceremonies at Sichomovi, a pueblo near Walpi, settled by 
clans from Zuni and often called the Zuni pueblo by the Hopi. One 
of the Sichomovi ceremonies celebrated at Oraibi and Sichomovi 
on the East Mesa, in which we may find survivals of the earliest Tewa 
and Zuhi symbolism, is called the Owakiilti. The Sichomovi variant 
of the Owakiilti shows internal sociologic relation to the Butterfly or 
Buli (Poli) clan resident in Awatobi before its fall. This state- 
ment is attested by certain stone slabs excavated from Awatobi 
mounds, on which are painted butterfly symbols. The Walpi Lala- 
konti, first described by the author and Mr. Owens in 1892, has also 
survivals of Awatobi designs. It appears that while it is not easy 
to trace any of the rich symbolism of Awatobi directly into Walpi 
pottery, it is possible to discover close relations between certain 
Awatobi symbols and others still employed in Walpi ceremonials. 
Sikyatki and Awatobi were probably inhabited synchronously and 
as kindred people had a closely allied or identical symbolism; there 
is such a close relation between the designs on pottery from the two 
ruins that Awatobi symbols introduced into Walpi have a close 
likeness to those of Sikyatki. 1 

1 The Buli (Poli) clan is probably Tewa, as the word indicates, which would show that 
Tewa as well as Keres clans lived at Awatobi. No legend mentions Buli clans at Sikyatki, 
but several traditions locate them at Awatobi. 

74936°— 19— 33 eth 18 



274 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



The natural conservatism in religious rites of all kinds has brought 
it about that many of the above-mentioned designs, although aban- 
doned in secular life of the Hopi, still persist in paraphernalia used 
in ceremonies. It is therefore pertinent to discuss some of these 
religious symbols with an idea of discovering whether they are asso- 
ciated with certain clans or ruins, and if so what light they shed on 
prehistoric migrations. In other words, here the ethnologists can 
afford us much information bearing on the significance of prehistoric 
S} 7 mbols. 

One great difficulty in interpreting the prehistoric pictures of 
supernaturals depicted on ancient pottery by a comparison of the 
religious paraphernalia of the modern Hopi is a complex nomen- 
clature of supernatural beings that has been brought about by the 
perpetuation or survival of different clan names for the same being 
even after union of those clans. Thus we find the same Sky god with 
many others all practically aliases of one common conception. To 
complicate the matter still more, different attributal names are also 
sometimes used. The names Alosaka, Muyinwu, and Talatumsi are 
practically different designations of the same supernatural, while 
Tunwup, Ho, and Shalako appear to designate the same Sky-god 
jDersonage. Gultus heroines, as the Marau mana, Shalako mana, 
Palahiko mana, and others, according as we follow one or another 
of the dialects, Keres or Tewa, are used interchangeably. This 
diversity in nomenclature has introduced a complexity in the Hopi 
mythology which is apparent rather than real in the Hopi Pantheon, 
as their many names would imply. 1 The great nature gods of sky 
and earth, male and female, lightning and germination, no doubt 
arose as simple transfer of a germinative idea applied to cosmic 
phenomena and organic nature. The earliest creation myths were 
drawn largety from analogies of human and animal birth. The 
innumerable lesser or clan gods are naturally regarded as offspring 
of sky and earth, and man himself is born from Mother Earth. He 
was not specially created by a Great Spirit, which was foreign to 
Indians unmodified by white influences. 

As the number of bird designs on Sikyatki pottery far outnumber 
representations of other animals it is natural to interpret them by 
modern bird symbols or by modern personations of birds, many 
examples of which are known to the ethnological student of the Hopi. 

In one of a series of dances at Powamu, which occurs in February, 
men and boys personate the eagle, red hawk, humming bird, owl, 
cock, hen, mocking bird, quail, hawk, and other birds, each appro- 
priately dressed, imitating cries, and wearing an appropriate mask 

1 A unification of names of these gods would have resulted when the languages of the 
many different clans had been fused in religions, as the language was in secular usage. 
The survival of component names of Hopi gods is paralleled in the many ancient re- 
ligions. 



FEWKES] 



TAN O AN EPOCH 



275 



of the birds they represent. In a dance called Pamurti, a ceremony 
celebrated annually at Sichomovi, and said to have been derived 
from Zuni, personations of the same birds appear, the men of Walpi 
contributing to the performance. Homovi, one of the Hopi Indians 
who took part, made colored pictures representing all these birds, 
which may be found reproduced in the author's article on Hopi 
katcinas. 1 

In the Hopi cosmogony the Sky god is thought to be father of all 
gods and human beings, and when personations of the subordinate 
supernaturals occur they are led to the pueblo by a personator of 
this great father of all life. The celebrations of the Powamu, at 
the East Mesa of the Hopi, represent the return of the ancestors or 
kachinas of Walpi, while the Pamurti is the dramatization of the 
return of the kachinas of Sichomovi whose ancestors were Zuni kin. 

Life figures or animal forms, as birds, serpents, and insects, de- 
picted on Little Colorado pottery differ considerably from those on 
Sikyatki ware. Take, for instance, bird designs, the most abundant 
life forms on ancient pueblo pottery on the Little Colorado, as well 
as at Sikyatki. It needs but a glance at the figures of the former 
to show how marked the differences are. The leader of the kachinas 
in the Powamu, which celebrates the return of these ancestral gods 
to the pueblo, Walpi, wears an elaborate dress and helmet with ap- 
pended feathers. He is led into the village by a masked man per- 
sonating Eototo. 2 

Symbols Introduced from Awatobi 

The women saved at Awatobi in the massacre of 1700, according to 
a legend, brought to Walpi the paraphernalia of a ceremony still 
observed, called the Mamzrauti. Naturally we should expect to find 
old Awatobi symbolism on this paraphernalia, which is still in use. 
The cultus heroine of the Mamzrauti is the Corn-mist maid, known 
by the name of Shalako mana or Palahiko mana. 3 We have several 
representations of this maid and their resemblance to the pictures 
of Shalako mana depicted by Hano potters would imply a common 
Tanoan origin. 

Shalako Mana 

The most common figure on the third epoch of Hopi pottery, com- 
monly called modern Tewa and manufactured up to 1895 by Nampeo, 
a Hano potter, is a representation of the Corn maid, Shalako mana, 

1 Twenty-first Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn. 

2 Ibid., p. 76. Eototo, also called Masaufl, was the tutelary of Sikyatki, as Alosaka 
or Muyinwu was of Awatobi. 

3 A somewhat rimilar personage to Shalako mana in Aztec ceremonies was called 
Xalaquia (Shalakia). 



276 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTEEY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



who, as shown, is the same personage as Marau mana and Palahiko 
mana in the festival of the Mamzrauti derived from Awatobi. The 
symbol of this goddess is instructive and easily recognized in its 
many variations. Her picture on Hano pottery is shown in fig- 
ure 108. 

The most striking features of her symbolism, brought out in plate 
89, are terraced bodies representing rain clouds on the head, an ear 
of maize symbol on the forehead, curved lines over the mouth, 
chevrons on the cheeks, conventionalized wings, and feathered gar- 
ment. It is also not uncommon to find carved representations of 




Pig. 108. — Head of Shalako mana, or Corn maid. 



squash blossoms occupying the same positions as the whorls of hair 
on the heads of Hopi maidens. 

The Shalakotaka male is likewise a common design readily recog- 
nized on modern pottery. Particularly abundant are figures of the 
mask of a Kohonino god, allied to Shalako, which is likewise called 
a kachina, best shown in paraphernalia of the Mamzrauti ceremony. 

It sometimes happens in Hopi dramatization that pictures of 
supernatural beings and idols of the same take the place of per- 
sonations by priests. For instance, instead of a girl or a woman 
representing the Corn maid, this supernatural is depicted on a slab of 
wood or represented by a wooden idol. One of the best-known fig- 
ures of the Corn maid (Shalako mana) is here introduced (pi. 89) to 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 89 




SHALAKO MANA, CORN MAID (FROM TABLET 
DANCE) 



FEWKES] 



TAN OA N EPOCH 



277 



illustrate the relation of old Awatobi and existing Hopi symbolism; 
a modern figure (108) of this Corn maid, painted on a wooden slab, 
is sometimes carried by the Walpi women in their dance. Figures of 
the Awatobi germ god, Alosaka, otherwise called Muyinwu, 1 are 
depicted on the slabs used by most of the women at that time. 

The different designs on the slab under consideration (pi. 89) are 
indicated by letters and explained as follows : a represents a circular 
fragment of the haliotis or abalone shell hanging midway from a 
figure of an ear of corn, c. The cheeks are tattooed or painted with 
characteristic figures, cb, the eyes rectangular of different colors. 
The letter d is a representation of a wooden ear pendant, a square, 
flat body covered on one side with a mosaic of turquoise sometimes 
arranged in figures. The letter e is the end of a string by which the 
ceremonial blanket is tied over the left shoulder, the right arm 
being free, as shown in the illustration. Over the right shoulder, 
however, is thrown a ceremonial embroidered kilt, fb. 

The objects in the hands represent feathers and recall one type of 
the conventional feathers figured in the preceding pages. The letters 
fr represent falling rain embroidered on the rim of the ceremonial 
blanket and re the terraced rain clouds which in arc become 
rounded above ; g represents a turquoise at the end of a string of tur- 
quoise suspended from shell necklaces sn; m represents the butterfly 
and is practically identical with the decorations on dados of old Hopi 
houses; s represents a star; sb represents shell bracelets, many ex- 
amples of which occur in ruins along the Little Colorado ; ss is sup- 
posed to have replaced the key patterns which some authorities iden- 
tify as sprouting beans. There are commonly nine rectangular mark- 
ings, nc, on the upper border of the embroidered region of ceremonial 
blankets and kilts, each of which represents either a month or a day, 
by some said to refer to ceremonial or germ periods. 2 

The Shalako mana figures have not yet been found in the unmodi- 
fied Little Colorado ware, but homologous figures have been found 
in the Rio Grande area. 

The design (pi. 88, d) with a horn on the left side of the head 
and a rectangle on the right, the face being occupied by a terrace 
figure from which hang parallel lines, reminds one of the " coronets " 
worn on the head by the Lakone maids (manas) in the Walpi Basket 
dance of the Lalakonti. The horn in the coronet is without terminal 
appendages, although a feather is tied to it, and the rectangle of 
plate 88, d, is replaced by radiating slats spotted and pointed at 

1 An account of this dance with details of the nine days' ceremony as presented in the 
major or October variant will be found in the American Anthropologist, July, 1892. The 
minor or Winter ceremony, in which the Corn maids are personated by girls, is published 
in the same journal for 1900. The Corn maid has several aliases in this ceremony, among 
which are Shalako mana, Palahiko mana, and Marau mana. 

2 This Corn maid is one of the most common figures represented by dolls. 



278 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[BTH. ANN. 33 



their ends, said to represent the sunflower. The whole design in 
plate 88, d, represents a bird, 1 recalling that of the figure Marautiyo 
on one of the appended slabs of the altar of the Walpi Marau cere- 
mony. In this altar figure we find not only a horn on the left side 
of the head, but also a rectangular design on the right. 

On the corresponding right-hand side of this altar we have a pic- 
ture of Marau mana (Shalako mana). It will thus appear that when 
compared with the Lakone coronet the figure on the Shongopovi 
bowl represents a female being, whereas when compared with the 
figure on the Marau altar it resembles a male being. There is, there- 
fore, something wrong in my comparison. But the fact remains 
that there survive in the two woman's festivals — Lakone maid's 
coronet and Marau altar — resemblances to prehistoric Hopi designs 
from Shongopovi. Moreover, it is known that the Marau fetishes 
are stated by the chief Saliko to have been introduced from Awatobi 
into Walpi by her ancestor who was saved at the massacre of that 
town in 1700. 

The life figures of the Tanoan epoch, or that following the 
overthrow of Sikyatki, can be made out by a study of modern 
Hano pottery. Perhaps the most complex of these is that of the 
Corn maid, Shalako mana. Shalako mana plays a great role in the 
Mamzrauti, a ceremony derived from Awatobi, and figures repre- 
senting her are common designs made on Hano pottery. Designs 
representing this being are common on the peculiar basket plaques 
made at the Middle Mesa and dolls of her are abundant. The con- 
stant presence of her pictures on basket plaques at the Middle Mesa 
would also seem to show an ancient presence in the Hopi country, 
and indicate an identity of pottery designs from ancient Shumopavi 
with those from the East Mesa and Awatobi. 2 

One of her modern Walpi ceremonies has such pronounced Awatobi 
symbolism that it may be instanced as showing derivation; viz, the 
New-fire festival. 3 The women of the Marau and the men of the 
Tataukyamu regard themselves kindred, and taunt each other, as 
only friends may without offence, in this festival, and the Tatau- 
kyamii often introduce a burlesque Shalako mana into their per- 
formances. 

1 The two parallel lines on the two outside tail feathers recall the markings on the face 
of the War god Puiikonghoya. 

2 A personation of Shalako mana at Oraibi, according to Mr. H. E. Voth, came from 
Mishongnovi. This conforms exactly with the legends that state the Mamzrauti may 
have been introduced into Mishongnovi from Awatobi, for at the division of the captive 
women at Maski many of the women went to that pueblo. 

3 See Fewkes, The New-fire Ceremony at Walpi, pp. 80-138. The New-fire rites at 
Walpi are celebrated in November, when four societies, Aaltfi, Wiiwiitcimtu, Tataukyamfl, 
and Kwakwantu, take part. As in all new-fire ceremonies, phallic or generative rites are 
prominent, the Wiiwiitcimtu and Tataukyamu who kindle the fire being conspicuous in 
these rites. Their bodies have phallic emblems painted on them and the latter bear 
Zuni symbols. 



FBWKES] 



TAN O AN EPOCH 



279 



The designs painted on the bodies and heads of several modern 
dolls representing Corn maids are symbols whose history is very 
ancient in the tribe. For instance, those of feathers date back to 
prehistoric times, and terraced designs representing rain clouds are 
equally ancient. The dolls of the Corn maid (Shalako mana) pre- 
sent a variety of forms of feathers and the headdresses of many dolls 
represent kachinas, and show feathers sometimes represented by 
sticks on which characteristic markings are painted, but more often 
they represent symbols. 1 

Symbols of Hano Clans 

Hano, as is well known, is a Tewan pueblo, situated on the East 
Mesa, which was the last great body of Tewa colonists to migrate to 
Hopiland. While other Tewa colonists lost their language and be- 
came Hopi, the inhabitants of Hano still speak Tewa and still pre- 
serve some of their old ceremonies, and consequently many of their 
own symbols. Here were found purest examples of the Tanoan epoch. 

The potters of clans introduced symbols on their ware radically 
different from those of Sikyatki, the type of the epoch of the finest 
Hopi ceramics, and replaced it by Tewan designs which characterize 
Hopi pottery from 1710 to 1895, when a return was suddenly made 
to the ancient type through the influence of Nampeo. .At that date 
she began to cleverly imitate Sikyatki ware and abandoned de toto 
symbols introduced by Hano and other Tewa clans. 

Fortunately there exist good collections of the Tewa epoch of 
Hopi ceramics, but the ever-increasing demand by tourists for ancient 
ware induced Nampeo to abandon the Tewa clan symbols she for- 
merly employed and to substitute those of ancient Sikyatki. 2 

The majority of the specimens of Hano pottery, like those of the 
Tanoan epoch to which it belongs, are decorated with pictures of clan 
ancients called kachinas. These have very little resemblance to de- 
signs characteristic of the Sikyatki epoch. They practically belong 
to the same type as those introduced by Kachina, Asa, and Badger 
peoples. One of the most common of these is the design above dis- 

1 The designs on the wooden slats carried by women in the dance known as the Marau 
ceremony are remarkably like some of those on Awatobi and Sikyatki pottery. 

2 Much of the pottery offered for sale by Harvey and other dealers in Indian objects 
along the Santa Fe Railroad in Arizona and New Mexico is imitation prehistoric Hopi 
ware made by Nampeo. The origin of this transformation was due partly to the author, 
who in the year named was excavating the Sikyatki ruins and graves. Nampeo and her 
husband, Lesou, came to his camp, borrowed paper and pencil, and copied many of the 
ancient symbols found on the pottery vessels unearthed, and these she has reproduced on 
pottery of her own manufacture many times since that date. It is therefore necessary, 
at the very threshold of our study, to urge discrimination between modern and ancient 
pottery in the study of Hopi ware, and careful elimination of imitations. The modern 
pottery referred to is easily distinguished from the prehistoric, inasmuch as the modern 
is not made with as much care or attention to detail as the ancient. Also the surface of 
the modern pottery is coated with a thin slip which crackles in firing. 



280 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



cussed representing Shalako mana, the Corn maid, shown in figure 
109. In this figure we have the face represented by a circle in the 
center and many lenticular figures arranged in rows attached to the 




Fig. 109. — Head of Kokle, or Earth woman. 

neck and shoulders corresponding to the appendages explained in 
figure 108. It is said in the legends that when the Corn maid ap- 
peared to men she was enveloped in fleecy clouds and wore a 
feathered garment. These are indicated 
by the curved figures covered with dots 
and the parallel lines on the body. Feather 
symbols recalling those of the Sikyatki 
epoch hang from appendages to the head 
representing rain clouds. 

In figure 109 we have a representation 
of the head with surrounding clouds, and 
portions of the body of a kachina, called 
Kokle, who is personated in Winter cere- 
monies. It is instructive to note that this 
figure has symbols on the head that recall 
the Sikyatki epoch. The ancient Tewan 
earth goddess, Hahaiwugti, is represented in figure 110. She appears 
also in figure 111, where her picture is painted on a ladle, the handle 
of which represents an ancient Tewan clown called by the Hano 
people Paiakyamu. 




Fig. 110. — Head of Hahaiwugti, 
or Earth woman. 



FEWKES] 



TAN O AN EPOCH 



281 




The War god, Puukon hoya, also a Tewan incorporation in the 
Hopi pantheon, appears frequently on pottery of the Tanoan epoch, 
as shown in figure 112. This figure, 
painted on a terra-cotta slab, is iden- 
tified by the two parallel marks on 
each cheek. 

CONCLUSION 

In the preceding pages an attempt 
has been made to trace the chrono- 
logical sequence of pottery symbols in 
Hopiland by pointing out distinct 
epochs in cultural history and corre- 
lating the sociology of the tribe. This 
takes for granted that the pottery 
symbols characteristic of this people 
are directly connected with certain 
clans. There have from time to time 
been sudden changes in symbols, or 
previous designs have suddenly dis- 
appeared and others have taken their 
places, as well as a slow development 
of existing symbols into more com- 
plicated forms. There persist everywhere survivals of old pre- 
puebloan symbols inherited from the past and a creation of new 
products of Hopi environment not found elsewhere. 

The author will close this paper with 
a brief theoretical account of the un- 
written culture history of Hopi, part of 
which explains certain pottery symbols. 
If we take that segment of southwestern 
history extending from the earliest to the 
present, we find evidences of the exist- 
ence of a prepuebloan culture existing 
before terraced houses were built or cir- 
cular kivas had been used for ceremonial 
purposes. This epoch was antecedent to 
the construction of the great walled com- 
pounds of the Gila, illustrated by Casa 
Grande. At that epoch known as the pre- 
puebloan there extended from Utah to the 
Mexican boundary and from the Colorado to the Rio Grande a culture 
architecturally characterized by small fragile-walled houses not united 
or terraced. These houses were sometimes like pit dwellings, either 



Fig. 111. — Ladle with clown carved 
on handle and Earth woman on 
bowl. 




Fig. 112.- 



-Piiiikon hoya, little 
War god. 



282 



DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY 



[ETH. ANN. 33 



partially or wholly subterranean. When above ground their walls 
were supported by upright logs in which canes or brushes were woven 
and covered with mud, the roofs being made of cedar bark or straw 
overlaid with adobe. 

The pottery of this early prehistoric epoch was smooth, painted 
mainly with geometric patterns, corrugated, or indented. Rectilinear 
or curved lines constituted the majority of the superficial decorations 
and life designs were few or altogether wanting. In addition to 
these architectural and ceramic characteristics, this prepuebloan 
cultural stage was distinguished by many other features, to mention 
which would take us too far afield and would be out of place in this 
article. Evidences of this stage or epoch occur everywhere in the 
Southwest and survival of the archaic characters enumerated are 
evident in all subsequent epochs. 

The so-called " unit type " or pure pueblo culture grew out of this 
early condition and was at first localized in northern New Mexico 
and southern Colorado, where it was autochthonous. Its essential 
feature is the terraced communal house and the simplest form of the 
pueblo, the " unit type," first pointed out by Dr. T. Mitchell Prud- 
den — a combination of dwelling houses, with a man's house or kiva 
and a cemetery. The dwellings are made of stone or clay and are 
terraced, the kiva is subterranean and circular, embedded in or 
surrounded by other rooms. The " unit type " originated in Colo- 
rado and, spreading in all directions, replaced the preexisting houses 
with fragile walls. Colonists from its center extended down the 
San Juan to the Hopi country and made their way easterly across 
the Rio Grande and southerly to the headwaters of the Gila and 
Little Colorado, where they met other clans of specialized pre- 
puebloan culture who had locally developed an architecture of Great 
House style characteristic of the Gila and Salt River Valleys. 

The essential differences between the terraced pueblo and the pre- 
viously existing fragile-walled house culture are two : The terraced 
architecture results from one house being constructed above an- 
other, the kiva or subterranean ceremonial room being separated or 
slightly removed from the secular houses. 

An explanation of the origin of the terraced pueblo is evident. 
This form of house implies a limited site or a congestion of houses 
on a limited area. An open plain presents no limitation in lateral 
construction; there is plenty of room to expand in all directions to 
accommodate the enlargement which results as a settlement increases 
in population. In a cave conditions are otherwise ; expansion is lim- 
ited. When the floor of the cavern is once covered with rooms the 
only additions which can possibly be made must be vertically. 
In protection lies the cause of the development of a terraced 
architecture such as the pueblos show, for the early people con- 



FEWKKS j 



TAN OAK EPOCH 



283 



structed their fragile-walled habitations in a cavern, and as an en- 
largement of their numbers occurred they were obliged to construct 
the terraced pueblos called cliff-dwellings, with rooms closely ap- 
proximated and constructed in terraces. In the course of time these 
cliff-dwellers moved out of their caverns into the river valleys or to 
the mesa summits, carrying with them the terraced architecture, 
which, born in caverns, survived in their new environment. This 
explanation is of course hypothetical, but not wholly without a basis 
in fact, for we find survivals of the prepuebloan architecture scat- 
tered throughout the Southwest, especially on the periphery of the 
terraced house area, as well as in the area itself. The ancient ter- 
raced house architecture is confined to a limited area, but around its 
ancient border are people whose dwellings are characterized by 
fragile-walled architecture. These are the survivals of the pre- 
puebloan culture. 

The environmental conditions along the San Juan and its tribu- 
taries in Colorado and New Mexico render it a particularly favorable 
culture center from which the pure pueblo type may have originated, 
and although observations have not yet gone far enough to prove 
that here was the place of origin of the unit type, and therefore of 
pueblo culture, there are strong indications that a fable of the 
Pueblos, that they came from the caves in the north, is not without 
legendary foundation so far as their origin is concerned. 

The term "cliff-dwelling," once supposed to indicate a distinct 
stage of development, refers only to the site and is a feature inade- 
quate for classification or chronology. All cliff-dwellings do not 
belong to the same structural type. There is little similarity save in 
site between Spruce-tree House on the Mesa Verde, and Montezuma 
Castle in the Verde Valley ; the former belongs to the " pure pueblo 
type," the latter to another class of buildings related to " compounds " 
of the tributaries of the Gila and Salt River valleys. 



AUTHORITIES CITED 



Fewkes, Jesse Walter. Snake ceremonials at Walpi. Journal of American 
Ethnology and Archaeology, vol. iv, pp. 1-126. Boston and New York, 1894. 

. Archeological expedition to Arizona in 1895. Seventeenth Annual Re- 
port of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pt. 2, pp. 519-742. Washington, 
1898. 

. Winter solstice altars at Hano pueblo. American Anthropologist, n. s. 

vol. i, no. 2, pp. 251-276. New York, 1899. 

. The New-fire ceremony at Walpi. American Anthropologist, n. s. vol. 

ii, no. 1, pp. 80-138. New York, 1900. 
. The lesser New-fire ceremony at Walpi. American Anthropologist, n. s. 

vol. in, no. 3, pp. 438-453. New York, 1901. 
. Hopi katcinas. Tioenty-flrst Annual Report of the Bureau of Ameri- 
can Ethnology, pp. 13-126. Washington, 1903. 
. Two summers' work in Pueblo ruins. Twenty-second Annual Report 

of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pt. 1, pp. 17-195. Washington, 1904. 
. Hopi ceremonial frames from Canon de Chelly, Arizona. American 

Anthropologist, n. s. vol. vin, no. 4, pp. 664-670. Lancaster, 1906. 
. Hopi shrines near the East Mesa, Arizona. American Anthropologist, 

n. s. vol. vni, no. 2, pp. 346-375. Lancaster, 1908. 
. The butterfly in Hopi myth and ritual. American Anthropologist, n. s. 

vol. xn, no. 4, pp. 576-594. Lancaster, 1910. 
Malleby, Gaeeick. On the pictographs of the North American Indians. 

Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 13-256. Washington, 

1886. 
284 




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